Monday 25 May 2015 06:48, UK
The line-up for the 2015/16 Premier League season will be complete on Monday evening as Middlesbrough and Norwich face off in the Sky Bet Championship play-off final.
Playing in a game dubbed the most lucrative in world football, Deloitte report that promotion for Boro would be worth £130m and at least £80m for Norwich. The Canaries are still entitled to parachute payments, which explains the difference in figures between the teams.
Both clubs are well equipped for promotion and have tasted Premier League football before – Norwich as recently as last season, while Middlesbrough were relegated from the top flight in 2009.
Having been in and out of the top two for the majority of the season, finishing fourth was a disappointment to Boro and the fact that they have failed to win in four appearances at Wembley also will leave lingering doubts about their ability to get over the line.
The form of on-loan Chelsea man Patrick Bamford has played a major role in their surge towards the Premier League but the Championship Player of the Season is facing a race against time to be fit for this clash.
Middlesbrough’s striker missed their 3-0 semi-final second-leg win over Brentford and is a doubt with an ankle injury.
That victory over the Bees was the 22nd time this season the excellent Middlesbrough back four had kept a clean sheet and two of those came against Norwich in a 4-0 win at the Riverside Stadium and a gritty 1-0 success at Carrow Road.
However, previous results count for little in a game like the play-off final and Norwich go into the clash as slight favourites after a fantastic second half to the season.
New manager Alex Neil inspired the renaissance as the Canaries won 15 of their last 22 games to end the season in third having been out of the play-offs when Neil took over in January. Since taking the reins, the Norwich manager has yet to suffer a defeat on the road as his boys can boast the joint-best away record in the Championship.
Norwich, who have striker Lewis Grabban is available again after completing a ban, brushed aside Ipswich in the semi-finals, winning 4-2 on aggregate, meaning that Neil's side have only lost one of their last 13 games – although that defeat was the 1-0 reverse to Boro in April.
Betting
Norwich have been popular with Sky Bet to land promotion in the 90 minutes at 7/5 with the big pitch likely to suit their attacking play while organised Middlesbrough can be backed at 19/10.
Bamford is the man everyone wants to be on in the first goalscorer market with punters lapping up the 6/1 available and there has been similar support for Cameron Jerome to notch first, also at 6/1.
