Middlesbrough chief Chris Wilder insists his players should have regrets after narrowly missing out on the Championship play-offs.
Boro were in mid-table when Wilder was appointed as successor to Neil Warnock in November. But a remarkable run of form saw them leap up the table and they entered the final month of the season right in the conversation for a potential Premier League tilt.
But just two wins in their final eight league games saw them stumble during the run-in. They went into the final day knowing that only a win at Preston North End, as well as results going their way elsewhere, would give them any chance whatsoever of finishing in the top six.
But unfortunately for Wilder his side failed to keep up their side of the bargain, falling to a limp 4-1 reversal at Deepdale.
They found themselves 2-0 down at half-time and despite halving the arrears just after the restart, they couldn't get back into the contest and even ended with ten men after Paddy McNair's red card.
A clearly disappointed Wilder reflected on his side's near-miss saying: "There will be a few regrets from players when they put their head on the pillow, if they’ve got anything about them, over the next two or three days. It’s quite a difficult one to really get after them because they are the ones that have really turned the season around.
“There was a reason there was a change in management. It wasn’t because, without sounding arrogant, I was available and I might have gone elsewhere. The reason was because the season was drifting and the chairman and the chief executive didn’t want to see it drift.
"And it didn’t off the back of that. All of a sudden we turned it around, got some results, went on a fabulous cup run and had some fantastic memories of the season but there will be a tinge of regret and disappointment. At times, we’ve shown we are a really good side but when push comes to shove and we’ve had to come out of this end of the season after the international break, the three losses on the spin at home have really hurt us.
“Maybe if we got a couple of results in there, that we should have done, maybe this (game) would have been irrelevant because we’d have been in. But we weren’t because both boxes have not been good enough. We’ve not made enough saves and not defended well enough and not been clinical enough at the other end."
Among the highlights of Boro's campaign was a superb run to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
Victories over both Manchester United and Tottenham had won them plenty of admirers in the previous rounds. Wilder added: "The players have turned the season around from going nowhere. We have had a terrific cup run, some great days and I want to bring more great days back to the football club."
The play-offs see Luton Town face Huddersfield and Wilder's old club Sheffield United take on Nottingham Forest. The Wembley final is on May 29.
