The aim was Championship promotion but Boro were riddled by inconsistency all season and fell away in the second half of the campaign, eventually missing out on the top six by four points.
There’s now a decision to be made on Carrick’s future, though the head coach insisted after the final day defeat at Coventry that he was determined to carry on.
And if he gets the chance, he wants to use the experiences of this season “as a stepping stone to something bigger” for Boro.
“There is a lot that goes on over the course of the season that ultimately determines where you finish,” said Carrick.
“I think we created our own expectations and wanted more. I think we’ve shown why that is with the squad we’ve got and the team we’ve got, what we’ve been capable of at times.
“We just haven’t been able to show that for long enough. Young players in that dressing room will learn from it, benefit from it and be stronger moving forward. That’s what we’ve ultimately got to use this for, as a stepping stone to something bigger.”
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Carrick continued: “We’re disappointed. We wanted to achieve it [promotion].
“We’ve been part of creating that expectation. It’s how you look at it, we’re hurt and we’re disappointed that we haven’t got it.
“But equally, we’ve shown at times what we’re capable of doing and that’s something to build on to help us achieve something in the future.
“Obviously there are big negatives because we haven’t achieved what we set out to achieve. But there are positives in terms of the stability and growing as a group.
“There are many players who will be better for this experience, and we can be better as a group, ready to come back next year.”
After a sticky start, Boro looked to be finding their flow in November when they won three straight games in emphatic fashion.
But they won just one of six games in December and a run of five straight defeats in January and February was extremely damaging to their top six hopes.
Boro ended up losing as many games as they won, and despite a top six finish still being a possibility in the final weeks of the season, scored just one goal and picked up just one point from their last three fixtures.
Carrick said: “I think there were different phases of it really.
“At the start of the season we didn’t get enough results. I was saying at the time, I thought we were looking like a really good team. A lot of the things we were doing within the game were really really good.
“Probably around Christmas time we had a bit of a stuttering spell. But we were always in and around it and feeling like we had a real chance.
“I always had the utmost belief in the lads that we would get there. In the end, we haven’t and we’ve got to accept that and deal with that.”
