Michael Carrick reacts to controversial penalty decision which saw Middlesbrough lose at Luton Town

Referee Graham Scott awarded the Hatters a penalty midway through the second half after Carlton Morris went down despite minimal contact from Boro goalkeeper Zack Steffen who came racing off his line to meet the striker.

Morris picked himself up off the ground to convert the spot kick to hand Luton the lead after Rob Edwards’ side had found themselves behind at half-time.

A much-changed Middlesbrough side, which included the Championship's player of the season Chuba Akpom being left on the bench, were the better side in the opening 45 minutes and took the lead through Camreon Archer’s 10th goal since joining on loan from Aston Villa.

Archer latched onto a long ball forward from Matt Crooks and was able to poke away from the on-rushing Ethan Horvath before outfoxing the recovering Sonny Bradley to tap into an empty net.

Luton hit back through Tom Lockyer's header early in the second half when he powered in from Alfie Doughty's corner before the Hatters would move four points clear of Boro through Morris’ contentious penalty.

"You don’t need me to tell you it’s not a penalty, it’s not even close to being a penalty in our eyes,” Carrick said after the match.

"So we’re bitterly disappointed with that but we’re hugely proud of the players. I thought we were fantastic, some of our football was fantastic and the penalty turns the game and puts it in their favour.

“I do wonder sometimes with referees coming down from the Premier League, I’m just guessing, and they’re used to VAR and they come and they’ve got to make a big decision like that and they haven’t got the VAR and it counts and they’re almost on their own.

"Whether there’s a case of them not being used to it I don’t know. I’m not accusing anyone. It’s maybe something to look at in the future because it’s a massive difference, having VAR to not, and referees and officials used to it.

“Luckily tonight, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t affect our season and where we finish in a big way, it’s more moving forward whether it’s in the play-offs or whatever.”

Despite being unhappy with the decision which went against his side, Carrick was pleased with Boro’s performance having made five changes to his starting line-up in what could have been a dress rehearsal for later in the season should the two teams meet again in the play-offs.

“I was really pleased with the boys. It’s not easy when boys haven’t played for a long time and you put them in a team together and I really believed we’d come here and play well and we did that and I’m so, so proud of them,” said Carrick.

“I think by the way we went about tonight we pretty much knew it was play-offs anyway. That was part of the team selection in some ways. We obviously want to win games, and we came here to win, but we look forward to the next two games.”