What Middlesbrough's promotion rivals are saying ahead of final week showdown - "Still here"

The race for automatic promotion has gone down to the final week of the Championship season, and the pressure is truly on.

After a six-game slump, Middlesbrough have won their last two matches - including an impressive 5-1 thrashing of Watford on Saturday - to stay in with a chance of finishing in the top two. Kim Hellberg said after the match that he’s ‘proud’ of his players whatever happens, but that he’s hoping for an ‘exciting’ final day showdown.

Of course, that all depends on what happens with Ipswich Town’s trip to Southampton on Tuesday, while even if they lose their game in hand, Millwall are also in the mix.

So, what are the two rival managers saying about the promotion race?

Kieran McKenna

Ipswich supporters will have been desperate to see their side snag all three points from West Brom on Saturday, but despite attempting 13 shots at the Hawthorns, they just couldn’t get over the line, ultimately being held to a 0-0 draw.

Nevertheless, the Tractor Boys hold all the cards, holding second place with a game in hand on those below them. Manager Kieran McKenna is happy with the position his side are in, insisting it’s one he would have taken before a ball was kicked this season.

“It’s a good position to be in, certainly one that we all would have taken and we know where we’re at,” said McKenna.

“On the other hand, we know how hard it is to win a game at this stage of the season and as I’ve said, the schedule is going to be one of the biggest challenges.

“We have to go to another away game now [at Southampton on Tuesday] and another midweek when the team we’re playing against [next Saturday, QPR] are going to be resting all week and preparing the game for us, similar to how it’s been at times over the last couple of weeks.

“We need to get our energy ready to go and win the game on Tuesday night, knowing we have another game on Saturday.

“It’s a good way to go into the last week, but there’s an awful, awful lot to do and it isn’t just going to happen for us, it’s going to take an incredible effort to win either of the next two games.”

Alex Neil

Millwall passed up a huge chance to take control of second place, having to score late to merely take a 1-1 draw from already-relegated Leicester City.

So, despite a 90th-minute strike from Macaulay Langstaff to snatch a draw, Alex Neil had to admit that the dominant emotions in his squad were ‘disappointment’ and ‘frustration’.

"There is disappointment [in the changing room] because we've not won the game, and that is always the overriding emotion whether it is the second last game or if it's the second game," he said.

"It doesn't make any difference because we set out to win and we tried to win. There will always be frustration for the fact that I think when you get a point and haven't played well, you can be quite content, but we feel we played well and had enough opportunities to make a difference and to score, and we didn't take them.

"Depending on what happens in the next couple of games will determine how important or not important that point will be.

"We just need to try and finish with as many points as we can. We were never thought to be in contention for the top two at any point, not with anybody, and we are still here with one game to play. For that to be the case, this group of players has done magnificently well.”

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