Boyhood Manchester City fan Adam Clayton aims to cause a domestic dispute when Boro go to the big boys on Saturday.
If he can help engineer an FA Cup fourth round giant-killing at the Etihad Stadium he knows it will ruffle family feathers.
“My mum is a massive, massive City fan,” he explained. “I come from a Manchester mixed marriage: My dad’s a red, a United fan, but my mum’s a big, big City fan.
“I grew up as a City fan too but you have to put all that aside and I’ll be hoping to go there and get a result for Boro.”
For Clayton it is an emotional return to the club he watched as a schoolboy and signed for when he was just seven.
“The house I grew up in was 10 minutes from Maine Road and it’s no secret I grew up supporting them,” he explained.
“I signed for City quite early. I was only seven years old when I joined the Academy so my allegiance went that way, much to my dad’s disappointment. I went to watch them every week. I think I went eight or nine years without missing a single home game.”
They were dark times for City. In his first few seasons the troubled club got through five managers and suffered a traumatic relegation to the third tier.
But while working his way through the City Academy he also saw his club climb back to the summit and move to the smart new stadium in 2003.
Since then there has been a huge transformation with the big money takeover by Sheikh Mansour that has funded two titles, and the FA Cup and League Cup in the last four seasons.
“It’s a completely different club now to the one I joined as a kid,” he said. “There’s no-one there I know player-wise except maybe Joe Hart.
“And City’s whole profile has changed. They are a massive, club now. They’ve spent millions and millions of pounds and they’ve just bought another player there in Wilfried Bony for £30m or whatever. They play in the Champions League!
“And we are going to go there to play in a great stadium on a great pitch and try and enjoy ourselves and give a good account of ourselves like we did at Liverpool and try our very best to get a result.
“I’m really looking forward to it. It will be nice to go back and play a competitive game there.
“I’ve played in the stadium loads of times for the youths and the reserves but to play in a top class game in front of 40,000 or whatever will be special.
“And not just for me as a City fan but for Boro as a club and for all the lads and the fans too. It will be a great challenge.
“It will be fantastic for us to test ourselves against the reigning champions. That’s what you want to do as a footballer, you want to play against the best and prove yourselves.”
City warmed up for the tie with a 2-0 win over Hamburg in Abu Dhabi yesterday but Frank Lampard came off after only 20 minutes, sparking injury fears.
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