Friday 6 May 2016 09:40, UK
Captain Grant Leadbitter insists Middlesbrough's winner-takes-all clash with Brighton is the sort of match young boys dream of playing in.
The two clubs are locked together on points and will battle on Saturday lunchtime to join Burnley in the Premier League next season, with one club being forced to settle for the agony of the play-offs.
Victory could be worth £200m, but Leadbitter says the players have forgotten the pain of last year's Championship play-off final defeat to Norwich and are relishing the challenge on Saturday.
He told the FL72 Podcast: "It's an exciting game to play in. It's a game you want to play in as a young boy and we are looking forward to it.
"We haven't mentioned [last year's play-off final] at all. At the start of the season, we put it out of the window and moved on from that.
"This week has been really good. Training has been really intense, there's been a real bite, and that's what you need going into a game like this.
"Form and everything goes out of the window in a game like this. We are all looking forward to it and Brighton will be looking forward to the game.
"It's two good teams who have been fighting for promotion all season. It should be a good encounter."
Middlesbrough's season looked set to be derailed in March following a bust-up between Aitor Karanka and his players, which saw the manager miss a 2-0 defeat at Charlton.
But the team have picked up six wins and three draws since Karanka returned to the dugout and Leadbitter says those problems are now behind them.
"We have all handled it well," he added.
"At the end of the day, we get paid to do our jobs and we have all moved on. You can see that in our results and performances.
"We are all looking forward to this week and looking forward to the weekend.
"We have a lot of good characters in the football club from top to bottom. We are a good group and we all handle things well.
"We've had a lot of disappointments and a lot of upsets this season, but we have come back strong and we go into one game where it's winner-takes-all."
