“They are a good team but the offside goal is a massive decision, I’m sure there’s two other teams that have been affected by it too, It was too clear not to be given, that goal was the difference in the end”- Michael Carrick blasts offside call in Middlesbrough defeat to Leeds

A BITTERLY disappointed Michael Carrick blasted the offside decision he felt played a pivotal role in Middlesbrough’s 4-3 home defeat to Leeds United this evening.

Boro’s promotion hopes were finally ended on n an action-packed night at the Riverside, but Leeds’ victory was a controversial one given that Wilfried Gnonto scored the visitors’ third goal from an offside position.

Crysencio Summerville slipped a pass behind the Boro backline, enabling Gnonto to slip a shot past Seny Dieng, but replays showed the Italian winger was well offside when the ball was played into him.

After a weekend in which refereeing decisions were firmly in the spotlight, Carrick felt the officials at the Riverside had let his side down.

“The offside goal is a massive, massive decision, not just for us, but I’m sure there’s two other teams that have been affected by it too, in the bigger picture,” said the Boro boss. “It’s such a big thing.

“We asked the boys to defend well and hold the line together, and the line is impeccable really. There’s three of them in the line on the edge of the box, they’re holding the line, and you expect that the offside will be given. It was too clear not to be given.”

Carrick remonstrated with referee Tony Harrington on the pitch after the final whistle, with his frustration spilling over in a way that has rarely been apparent during his managerial career to date.

The offside decision was an understandable source of discontent, but Carrick was also unhappy at the amount of stoppage time that was added on at the end of the game as Boro pushed for what would have been a dramatic equaliser.

“To be honest, I got really frustrated with the added time too,” said Carrick. “The board goes up for five minutes, and we end up getting about 18 seconds added on (on top of that). But the ball was out of play for 90 seconds or two minutes within that five minutes that was getting added on.

“I just get frustrated. Yeah, there’s added time, but then there should be added time onto the added time as well. I got a bit frustrated with that.”

While Boro conceded four goals in the league for the first time since August, Carrick was delighted with his players’ efforts as they pushed title-chasing Leeds all the way in their penultimate home fixture.

“I enjoyed the game,” he said. “I thought we did a lot of really, really good things. We pinned them back, and I thought we did loads of good things.

“They’ve got some good quality, They are a good team, they’ve shown that all season, and at the top end of the pitch, they’re really dangerous. You don’t have to give them much space for them to look dangerous. We knew that, but I thought the boys largely dealt with that pretty well.

“There were moments where they looked dangerous, but I thought other than that, we were really good in the game. We largely defended in shape really well, and I thought we were really good with the ball, and dominated and controlled large parts of the game.

“I was really pleased with the boys, it was an incredible effort all the way to the end. We went for it, we had to go for it, and we threw everything at them. But that goal was the difference in the end.”