Michael Carrick reveals what pleased him as Middlesbrough romped to derby success over Sunderland

Boro claimed the bragging rights after securing their biggest ever win on Wearside with an emphatic 4-0 success – all four goals coming in the second half after Dan Neil was sent of on the stroke of half-time for the Black Cats.

Tony Mowbray’s side’s resistance lasted just 13 minutes of the second half before boyhood Sunderland fan Sam Greenwood scored his first goal for Boro to open the scoring.

And the Teessiders quickly doubled their lead through Matt Crooks before Isaiah Jones and Marcus Forss completed the rout on Wearside and seal a memorable afternoon for Boro.

Carrick’s side had started brightly by stifling Sunderland before Mowbray’s men burst into life with Patrick Roberts who brought a fine save from the impressive Seny Dieng at the end of a mesmerising run.

Abdoullah Ba and Trai Hume fired off target while Greenwood forced Anthony Patterson into a smart stop with Josh Coburn unable to turn in the rebound.

Boro had plenty of enjoyment in midfield with Hayden Hackney and Dan Barlaser impressing but it was an incident involving Sunderland midfielder Neil which proved to be the main talking point.

Neil, booked earlier in the game for a foul on Coburn, was shown a second yellow card by referee Jarred Gillett for dissent – much to the bemusement of Mowbray and over 43,000 inside the Stadium of Light.

But Carrick’s side, who were on the receiving end of a controversial red card themselves in this fixture last season, made no mistake in pressing home their man advantage.

Greenwood expertly swept home from Dael Fry’s cross from the left to beat Patterson before two minutes later Jones danced by Jack Clarke to put it on a plate for Crooks who hammered home from close range.

Sunderland were unable to lay a glove on a rampant Boro by that point who extended their lead through Jones to cap a fine display before substitute Forss added the finishing touches when following up on Patterson’s save from Emmanuel Latte Lath as Carrick’s men made it four consecutive wins to head into the international break.

"I’m delighted,” Carrick told Sky Sports.

"We spoke about it at half-time how it’s a whole new game of football, it was irrelevant what had happened in the first half.

"It was more of a mentality thing; do you go into it thinking you’ve got a man extra so it will be easier or do you have the other mentality as if we have to chase the game and go after it? And the boys took that on fantastically well.

"The scoreline is what it is, but I thought we went about it in the right way and got what we deserved.

"It can be a tough place to be against 10 men, especially at a place like this when there’s so much to play for and so much passion and energy around the place so we were well aware of that,” he added.

"But we went about it in a great way. Our intensity was there, positive play, off the ball we were at it and we’re delighted with the goals and the clean sheet.”