Louis Carey insists pride will be the spur when Bristol City return to action at Middlesbrough tomorrow.

Bristol City FC's players are still reeling from the shock of losing 6-0 at home to arch-rivals Cardiff in a painfully one-sided Severnside derby in midweek.

Charged with the task of lifting his team-mates, long-serving club captain Carey says there is a burning desire within the camp to put things right at the Riverside tomorrow.

"It's all about professional pride when you suffer a defeat like that," said Carey.

"That game was definitely one of the worst experiences of my career and the lads were all devastated afterwards. There is no way you should ever lose like that at home.

"We started well for the first 20 minutes, but what came afterwards was totally unacceptable and we know that. It hurts even more when you know your friends and family are sat in the stands watching.

"To be honest, we felt embarrassed by what happened and we owe it to ourselves, the manager, the chairman and the fans to go out there and put it right against Middlesbrough."

Although many supporters left Ashton Gate long before the end of Tuesday's debacle and others vented their anger at the final whistle, others stayed behind to cheer the players off the pitch, and Carey insists he and his team-mates are determined to repay those supporters for their show of loyalty.

"It meant a lot to us that so many stayed behind to show us theirsupport after we let them down like that," said Carey.

"Losing to Cardiff like that must have been terrible for the supporters and we understood why some were angry and frustrated.

"But the ones who got behind us at the end were magnificent and we want to show them how much we appreciate their backing by putting on a good show and getting a result at Middlesbrough.

"All we could do for them on Tuesday was to apologise – now we want to make them proud again."

As captain and one of the senior professionals on the Ashton Gate staff, Bristolian Carey has been responsible for rallying his colleagues in recent days.

He added: "Everyone was still really low when we came back in on Wednesday. In fact, the mood was probably lower than anything I can remember in my time at the club.

"We talked about it as a group and we were all feeling terrible.

"But it's important to try and lift the lads and restore their confidence and that's what I've found myself doing this week.

"We have a big game coming up on Saturday and we have to lift ourselves and make sure we are ready for it.

"It was a very difficult day for all of us on Wednesday, but training was brilliant on Thursday and you could see the lads were getting it out of their systems."

Carey has endured his share of adversity since making his City debut in November 1995 and he is adamant the class of 2010 will recover from this latest setback.

He recalled: "I was here when we lost 5-0 at Bradford and then 6-1 at home to Wolves the following week and I was involved when we lost 7-1 at Swansea and 6-0 at Ipswich a few seasons ago.

"Losing 6-0 to Cardiff felt even worse, but I know we will come back from this. We lost by the same score at Ipswich in 2007 and ended up reaching the play-off final later that same season.

"It's all about how you react and bounce back and we have some strong characters in our dressing room. You have to stand up and be counted at times like this and it's up to us to all pull together now."

City boss Gary Johnson cancelled his squad's planned day off on Wednesday and instead scheduled an extra training session followed by a full-scale practice match.

He said: "When you have a result which hurts everyone as badly as that one in the week, you have to work very, very hard to turn things around as quickly as you can."

"Everything you do must be absolutely top-drawer and it has to be aggressive if you want to restore lost confidence. I want to see a good attitude, commitment and passion from the boys."

Johnson is unlikely to make wholesale changes and he said: "I have to think of the ones who have been here a long time and not let us down very often.

"They are the ones who got this club to Championship level and who are keeping us at Championship level, and they are the ones who have helped the club through tough times in the past."

Meanwhile, reserve goalkeeper Stephen Henderson has returned to Bristol after his loan spell at Wycombe was unexpectedly cut short.

City boss Gary Johnson said: "Scott Shearer played so well in goal for Wycombe in their last game that Gary Waddock (Wycombe manager) felt he couldn't leave him out.

"I didn't see any point in Stephen sitting on the bench down there when he needs first team games, so I called him back.

"I'm now trying to get him out on loan to another club over the weekend."

Johnson has also dismissed speculation linking him to Watford's former Chelsea full-back Jon Harley.