Middlesbrough boss Michael Carrick rages at referee performance in Sunderland defeat

Middlesbrough boss Michael Carrick felt his side were badly done-to by the referee against Sunderland, with him raging at the decision to give a red card and penalty against his side.

Dael Fry was sent off early in the second half for hauling down Ross Stewart as he ran towards goal. The officials decided it was inside the box and Fry had not made an attempt to play the ball.

The rules say that is a penalty and red card, and television cameras showed Stewart’s foot was on the line when he went down.

Carrick, though, did not see it that way at all.

"I don’t agree with either, to be honest with you,” Carrick said after the game. “For the sending-off, I don’t think Dael Fry has made any attempt to bring him down.

“There wasn’t a push, there wasn’t a pull, there wasn’t a trip.

"He is literally running in a straight line. Ross [Stewart] is entitled to go down. I don’t think he has dived but from Dael’s point of view, there’s nothing deliberate about him to try and bring him down. He is out of the box as everyone can see.

"It is not even worth me answering. Yeah, it is what it is. It changed the game. Big games like this, you can’t get decisions wrong like that.”

Despite his anger at the red card, Carrick would not commit to appealing the decision either. 

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