Michael Carrick praised his Middlesbrough players for digging deep and finding a way to win, in what Swansea boss Luke Williams described as an “atrocious game of football” at the Riverside.
Williams was furious after his side slumped to a 2-0 defeat that leaves the Swans just five points above the Sky Bet Championship relegation zone.
But Carrick’s Boro are now unbeaten in their last seven matches and are just six points off the play-off places ahead of Wednesday’s crucial trip to Hull.
Emmanuel Latte Lath came up with two moments of quality to secure Boro’s second home win in a week, with the Ivorian striking either side of half-time to take his tally for the season to 10 in the league and 12 in all competitions.
Latte Lath opened the scoring in first-half stoppage time then wrapped up the points 11 minutes from time with a clinical right-footed finish.
Carrick said: “I’m delighted to be honest. It’s the type of game that can pass you by if you don’t do the right things.
“I thought the boys were disciplined and effective and efficient in the work we wanted to do.
“We knew they’re good in taking the ball in possession. We were patient and disciplined, defended the box well and defended in our half well.”
Latte Lath now has five goals in nine games since returning from injury.
Carrick said: “Manu is coming into form. He’s had a big impact, he’s had a good return and hopefully there’s a few more in him.
“Hopefully his form carries on. When you’re on that run you want to keep surfing it. He’s definitely doing that. We have two or three challenging games coming up, we’ll need that impact player around the box.”
Boro’s rivals for the play-off places – Norwich, Hull and Coventry – all won on Saturday but Carrick said his players just need to concentrate on themselves as they look to force their way into the top six.
He said: “We’re coming from behind. We’ve put a bit of a run together, we just have to try and extend that as long as we can.
“Wednesday is a new challenge and will have a bit of a say on what the picture looks like after that. We just have to keep chipping away and see how we end up.”
Swansea mustered only one shot on target at the Riverside and have now won just one of their last six games.
Williams, who took over in January after leaving Notts County, said his players need to prove they should be part of his long-term plans at the club.
He fumed: “It was just an atrocious game of football, an absolutely diabolical example of the Championship.
“It would have been nicer if we’d won, at least we could have then pretended to be happy about something, but goodness me.
“There was nothing right about that. It was like going to a charity game in the summer, no atmosphere, a bit of talking in the crowd.
“The first goal was a comedy, the second one isn’t loads better. It’s hard to find anything good about today, especially when you don’t get any points.”
