Chris Wilder questions Middlesbrough’s fight and desire after defeat at Preston

Chris Wilder questioned his players’ fight and desire after 10-man Middlesbrough slumped to a 4-1 defeat at Preston to end their Championship play-off hopes.

Boro needed a final-day win at Deepdale to give themselves a chance of climbing into the top six but Emil Riis Jakobsen’s double helped fire Ryan Lowe’s side to a comfortable victory.

Alan Browne’s strike and a Dael Fry own goal also did the damage as Marcus Tavernier’s reply proved nothing more than a consolation ahead of Paddy McNair’s second-half red card.

Sheffield United and Luton’s wins ensured they completed the play-off places and Wilder admits his players never looked like leapfrogging them in Lancashire.

He said: “Everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

“The players were really off it and our fight should have been bigger than theirs.

“It was not the performance and not the day – you wake up believing, but it’s not to be.

“I think if anybody else outside of being a professional footballer asks me about ‘nothing to play for’ ever again, I’ll just show you the performance of the opposition today and how they went about it.

“Preston fully deserved their result – I thought they were better than us all over the pitch.

“Their front two were better than our back three, their midfield players dominated and dictated and their back three were more aggressive.

“We’ve had better results than them because that’s the reason we’re in the position that we are and Preston are in the position that they are.

“But it was a better performance individually and collectively by Preston and Ryan’s team all over the park.”

Preston looked livelier from the off and broke the deadlock in the 24th minute as captain Browne slammed home a half volley after Brad Potts’ cross.

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