Manager Michael Carrick admitted these are exciting times for Middlesbrough fans after they hammered Oxford 6-2 at the Kassam Stadium to make it 15 goals in three games.
Emmanuel Latte Lath netted a 12-minute hat-trick and Finn Azaz scored twice in the rout as Carrick’s men recorded a third successive haul of four goals or more for the first time since 1947.
Carrick said: “It’s just really enjoyable watching them perform at the moment, seeing them express themselves and getting their rewards for it.
“Emmanuel has found his stride – he’s showing that extra bit of sharpness, that zip that he’s showing us he’s got.
“I’m delighted for Manny and for Delano (Burgzorg) who played really well, Ben Doak’s playing well, Finn Azaz is dangerous, Riley McGree and Tommy Conway are coming on and making a difference.
“Ben is going to be a marked man now and he’s going to have to deal with it.
“I thought it wasn’t a great tackle on him for the penalty – it could have been a red card – but I’m not going to complain about it, luckily he’s all right.
“We know what the boys are capable of and it’s exciting, there’s no getting away from it.
“But I don’t feel any different to earlier in the season because that’s what we’ve been threatening to do with a lot of the good work.
“The boys are capitalising on it now and we’ve got to keep building on it and the confidence, there’s obviously a lot of good signs.”
Boro fell behind when Greg Leigh fired Oxford in front and did not equalise until the 37th minute – but then couldn’t stop scoring.
Substitute Dane Scarlett pulled a goal back for Oxford while Conway was also on target for Boro.
Carrick admitted: “That first period seems a really long time ago when we made the goalkeeper make a couple of early saves.
“We came back into the game and scored some really good goals – all the boys, those coming off the bench gave us an extra little push towards the end and we finished the game off fantastically well.
“We’d spoken over the last couple of days about the conditions and what it was going to be like weather-wise and how we would deal with it.
“There were so many positives, starting with a big save from Sol (Brynn) which set us off and then the second goal when he plays the ball to Delano and we end up going up the pitch and scoring.
“I could go through the whole team – there were so many positives for us, with the boys coming off the bench and doing well, and scoring so many goals, and we could have scored more.
“Sol stepped up and had a really good calming presence about him, which is not easy to do when you’ve not had a lot of football.”
Oxford head coach Des Buckingham stressed the importance of not over-reacting to the result.
He said: “I thought we started the game extremely well, were very compact and difficult to break down, and got a well-worked goal to go one up.
“But they then showed after 35 or so minutes, when they got their goal, what they’re capable of.
“We had a really big chance with Mark Harris to go around the goalkeeper to make it 2-1 and then a couple of minutes later they punish you and hit us with two very quick goals just before half-time which showed the quality they have.
“That changed the outcome of what we wanted to do and how we could manage the game.
“Boro are a very good team. It’s not the first time this season they’ve hit teams for threes, fours and fives. They’ve shown their quality.
“We were good for a large period of the first half and then I thought we came away from what we’ve been good at, and played into their hands a bit, opened up the spaces which they wanted and exploited, so we made it easier for the opponents more than we have done in the previous 15 games we’ve had.
“But it’s important we don’t over-react. It’s the first time in a very long while that we’ve had that kind of score – and it’s making sure now we don’t over-react and that we learn from today.
“We need to go back to being strong at what we’re good at.
“It was good at least for us to have Cameron Brannagan back for 70 minutes and others back from injury.
“It’s one thing having them back, though, another thing getting them up to match speed and tempo and it’s important we do that because we’ve got an important December ahead of us against teams that are in and around us and we’ll need them match fit and firing on all cylinders for then.”
