Aitor Karanka's men overcame Brentford in their Championship playoff semi-final to set up a clash against Norwich City at Wembley in the final to earn promotion to the top flight.

Friend is adamant that it would be huge for the club to end their six-year exile from the Premier League.

He told reporters: "It's something I have always wanted to do. When I first came to Middlesbrough everything indicated that this was a Premier League club and then having lived in Teesside it would mean just so much to everybody.

"It's a fantastic place to live, there are great people around here and it would be everyone getting promoted around here, that's for sure. It's a fantastic area that deserves the Premier League."

Boro take on Norwich in the playoff final on Monday.

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Premier League Table

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
P	Leicester City Leicester	44	30	4	10	86	39	47	94
2	Leeds United Leeds	45	27	9	9	80	41	39	90
3	Ipswich Town Ipswich	44	26	12	6	88	56	32	90
4	Southampton	45	25	9	11	85	62	23	84
5	Norwich City Norwich	45	21	10	14	79	63	16	73
6	West Bromwich Albion West Brom	45	20	12	13	67	47	20	72
7	Hull City	45	19	13	13	68	59	9	70
8	Middlesbrough	45	19	9	17	68	61	7	66
9	Coventry City Coventry	44	17	13	14	68	55	13	64
10	Preston North End Preston	44	18	9	17	56	61	-5	63
11	Bristol City	45	17	11	17	53	47	6	62
12	Cardiff City Cardiff	45	19	5	21	51	65	-14	62
13	Swansea City Swansea	45	15	12	18	59	64	-5	57
14	Watford	45	13	17	15	60	58	2	56
15	Sunderland	45	16	8	21	52	52	0	56
16	Millwall	45	15	11	19	44	55	-11	56
17	Queens Park Rangers QPR	45	14	11	20	45	57	-12	53
18	Stoke City Stoke	45	14	11	20	45	60	-15	53
19	Blackburn Rovers Blackburn	45	13	11	21	58	74	-16	50
20	Sheffield Wednesday Sheff Weds	45	14	8	23	42	68	-26	50
21	Plymouth Argyle Plymouth	45	12	12	21	58	70	-12	48
22	Birmingham City Birmingham	45	12	11	22	49	65	-16	47
23	Huddersfield Town Huddersfield	45	9	18	18	48	75	-27	45
R	Rotherham United Rotherham	45	4	12	29	32	87	-55	24