AITOR KARANKA admits Saturday’s 5-1 thrashing of Millwall was the perfect end to one of his most difficult weeks as Middlesbrough’s head coach.

Having been charged with improper conduct following his heated reaction to last weekend’s controversial stoppage-time concession against Blackburn Rovers, Karanka was also forced to concede that “differences of opinion” had led to him parting company with his former assistant, Craig Hignett, on Tuesday.

The Spaniard desperately needed a positive response from his players when they lined up in the daunting environs of the New Den, and it duly arrived as the Teessiders ran riot before the break to claim a four-goal lead at the half-time interval.

Jelle Vossen’s first-half hat-trick was accompanied by another goal from Patrick Bamford, and after Kike rounded things off in the closing stages to seal Boro’s first five-goal haul since 2009, a beaming Karanka conceded he could not have wished for a better reaction to a trying few days.

“I’m very pleased, but not only because of the score, but also because of the performance and the reaction after everything that happened last week,” he said. “It has been a very difficult week for everyone, especially for me.

“We know how difficult the week has been, but the reaction of the team was brilliant. The first half was perfect, but I told them at half-time that our biggest mistake would be to think that everything was done.

“We know how difficult it is to play (at Millwall), but we kept going in the second half and created a lot of chances again.  The final score could have been seven or eight, but the main thing was the performance and the reaction.”

Vossen’s display was especially notable, with the Belgium international breaking his goalscoring duck in spectacular fashion as he claimed three goals in the space of 23 first-half minutes.

The summer signing from Genk has been a somewhat peripheral figure in the first four months of the season, but Karanka is hoping Saturday’s goal glut is a sign of things to come.

“It could be that he starts to score a lot of goals now because with strikers, it is all about how they are feeling,” he said. “Sometimes, they have a lot of chances but don’t score, and then sometimes, and you don’t always know why, they suddenly start scoring.

“Hopefully that will be the case with Jelle, but it’s not just him, we also hope that Patrick and Kike continue scoring in the same way.”

The strength of Boro’s attacking options is one of the key reasons why they find themselves within two points of league leaders Derby County, who visit the Riverside this weekend.

As well as Vossen, Bamford and Kike, who have now shared 17 goals in all competitions this season, Karanka can also turn to Lee Tomlin, and it is hard to think of too many other Championship sides with such an array of attacking talent.

The contrast to last season, when Boro went seven successive games without scoring a goal in January, February and March, is marked, and should ensure there is no dramatic slump in form in the second half of the current campaign.

“Last season, we had problems scoring goals,” said Karanka. “There were games where we could not score one goal, but we are a consistent team now and are better at scoring.

“I said from the start of the season that we have a very good squad, and up front we have very good players. It’s not just the three strikers, we also have Yanic Wildschut, Adam Reach and Lee Tomlin. We have a lot of options in attack.”