Winger Albert Adomah has hailed Boro’s loyal supporters after more than 38,000 fans made the 500-mile round trip to Wembley Stadium.

Aitor Karanka’s side were beaten 2-0 by Norwich in the play-off final, a result that condemned Boro to a seventh straight season in the Championship.

Adomah was among Boro’s brightest performers on a disappointing afternoon, and the Ghanaian shared his sympathy for the travelling Boro fans.

“I feel bad for the supporters. It’s a long journey for them to see us lose,” Adomah told the club’s website.

“It’s a shame but at the same time we just have to look forward to next season.

“Throughout the season the support has been immense all of the time and they’re always with us whether we win, lose or draw, and you could see at Wembley.

“Even when we lost the game, they were still hanging around.

“Normally when a team lose, the supporters just leave the stadium and they were still there, and I appreciate that.”

Two goals from former Boro trialist Cameron Jerome and Nathan Redmond extinguished the Teessiders’ promotion hopes inside the opening 15 minutes.

And Adomah admitted the team paid the ultimate price for making a number of errors on the big day.

“We started okay but, to be honest, we made mistakes and when you play against the top teams and make mistakes they’ll punish you,” he added.

“We lost the game in the first 15 minutes. If you watch the game, they probably only had one shot in the second half and we had them on the back foot, but the game was won already.

“We tried our best but we just couldn’t score. We just have to think about next season.”