Aitor Karanka heaps praise on Middlesbrough squad following win over Bolton

Karanka was speaking before his side face Derby County on Tuesday evening in what will be a tough test for Boro. It was good fun, a good result and I’m very pleased.

Picking the ball up 25 yards from goal, Fabbrini unleashed a spectacular drive into the top corner that left Ben Amos with no chance.

The on loan Watford playmaker soon turned provider with a lovely through pass for Kike to double that advantage just ten minutes later. New signings Diego Fabbrini and Cristhian Stuani are pushing for their first league starts in Middlesbrough colours after impressing in Wednesday’s League Cup win away at Oldham Athletic.

The footwear was to cause problems, too, as Adomah seemingly annoyed referee James Adcock by being reluctant to leave the field to put it back on. The players that are here and players that have arrived, like (Stewart) Downing and Fabbrini, they’ve been training together for two or three weeks and they looked like they’ve been training together (for a long time).

The Italian global then saw another effort tipped onto the crossbar and Kike was first to react with just over half-an-hour played.

However, that miss mattered little as Middlesbrough took the spoils.

The Spaniard said in his pre-match press conference: “Bolton have good players, are organised, aggressive in the right way and will be hard”. The team played very well.

“I take full responsibility for the first half”, he said.

“But that’s gone, sometimes you have to learn from the good things and the bad things, and we have to know we can play in this way”.

“I wasn’t surprised. When I decided to come here I knew I was coming to a big club, with very good players and manager”.

In between those Brentford goals, City forward Luke Freeman was shown a straight red card for a high challenge on Harlee Dean and in the s econd half the extra man counted as strikes from Hull target Andre Gray and Philipp Hofmann gave Marinus Dijkhuizen his first win as Bees boss. I am happy for today, for me and for my team because it wasn’t simple playing against Bolton.