Dael Fry tries his best to remain measured but before long candour prevails. “Everyone’s really excited,” concedes Middlesbrough’s former England Under-21s centre-half. “The atmosphere around the place is absolutely fantastic, everyone’s buzzing, everyone in the town’s talking about promotion.”
Since Chris Wilder succeeded Neil Warnock as manager in early November, Boro have collected 20 points from nine league games, rising from 15th to sixth in the Championship. They travel to a third-place Blackburn side coached by their former captain, manager and enduring hero Tony Mowbray, on Monday aiming to reinforce suddenly realistic automatic promotion hopes.
