A total of 35 attempts on goal were shared by both teams as Sammie Szmodics’ brace secured a 2-1 triumph over bottom-of-the-table Middlesbrough.

Matt Crooks replied in an incredibly open game as Boro more than played their part in an absorbing and pulsating contest.

But the bare facts are that they have now collected just one point from their opening six games and, including last season’s two-legged play-off defeat to Coventry, have failed to win any of their last 11 league matches – a sequence that equals the club’s longest outside of top-flight football since January 1925.

Dejected Middlesbrough player Matt Crooks scored but couldn't help them slipping to defeat at Blackburn (Picture: Stu Forster/Getty Images)

However, manager Carrick insisted: “The changing room was quiet after the game, but it’s not a horrible atmosphere by any stretch of the imagination,” he said. “The mood is good.

“We’re not hiding from the fact that we need to get results, but there’s spirit and inner-belief in the group. It’s easy when people are telling me that I’m fantastic and the players that they are fantastic, but we knew a tough time would come at some point.

“Then, it’s how you deal with it and overcome it and, although this was an open game that probably suited them, I think we have controlled a lot of the other matches and it wouldn’t have taken much to tip the scales and turn the results in our favour.

“There were chances everywhere in this game and I thought we were right in it in the second half, but we are having to come back from setbacks too much at the moment.”

Former Premier League-winning defender Colin Hendry and 89-year-old Bryan Douglas, who played in the 1958 and 1962 World Cup finals for England, were among the luminaries paraded onto the pitch before kick-off and Blackburn boss Jon-Dahl Tomasson said: “It was good to see us win the club’s 5,000th game and to see all of the legends before the game. I hope they enjoyed it and all the fans did too.”

Blackburn Rovers: Pears, Brittain, Carter, Hyam, Pickering, Travis (Rankin-Costello 76), A Wharton (Hill 90), Hedges, Szmodics (Leonard 90), Dolan (Moran 59), Gallagher (Telalovic 59). Unused substitutes: Wahlstedt, S Wharton, Markanday, Garrett.

Middlesbrough: Dieng, van den Berg, Fry, Lenihan, Bangura (Silvera 69), Howson (Coburn 88), O'Brien, Forss (Rogers 87), Crooks (McGree 77), Hackney, Latte Lath. Unused substitutes: Greenwood, Barlaser, I Jones, McNair ,Glover.

Referee: J Bell (Yorkshire).

'Mood is good at Middlesbrough' insists Michael Carrick despite unwanted club record