Michael Carrick and his Middlesbrough players were disturbed at 1am by fireworks outside the team hotel hours before their Championship play-off clash with Coventry.
Carrick’s team drew the first leg of their semi-final 0-0 at the CBS Arena and will be favourites to progress to Wembley from Wednesday’s home leg against the Sky Blues – even though they could have done without the impromptu wake-up call.
It is unclear whether Coventry fans were responsible for the fireworks, though Carrick said it had made little impact on him or his team.
‘I woke up, checked the clock, saw it was 1am and had a chuckle to myself,’ he said.