Adam Clayton: 'Trying to stay in this league is nervy - being at the top is exciting'

Adam Clayton insists Boro are as good as anyone in the Championship and have what it takes to win promotion.

However, the all-action midfielder believes the players can’t look beyond Saturday’s televised six-pointer against Ipswich Town.

Clayton is enjoying the promotion battle, though, especially as he was battling to keep Huddersfield in the Championship 12 months ago.

“It’s exciting and I’m glad we are involved in it,” he said.

“I think we would have taken this at the start of the season – joint top of the league with 10 games to go - so let’s enjoy it and let’s see what we can do.

“I played the last game of last season trying to stay in the league and that’s nervy, this isn’t nervy, this is exciting.

“Worst case scenario you’re doing what you’re doing now, playing in the Championship. Best case scenario you are playing in the best league in the world so it’s exciting really.

“We’ve just got to knuckle down. We’ve got 10 games to go to win the games and get up.”

Boro are currently fourth in the table, level on 66 points with leaders Bournemouth, second-placed Derby and Watford, in third.

Clayton naturally wants to achieve automatic promotion but knows the club may have to go up the hard way if required and win the play-off final.

“It’s about getting promoted, that’s the message from the staff,” he said.

“We just want to get promoted and if we have to go to a play-off final and win a play-off final then I would be more than happy to do that.

“If we can't get top two I would be more than happy with that.

“The goal is top two because we are in a very good position and we have just as good a chance to get in the Premier League automatically.

“On the flip side if you don’t get in the top two you can’t be too disappointed because you’ve got to go into the play-off situation.

“But our aim, like another six teams in the league, is to get up automatically.

“If I’m being honest, did I think we would go up automatically at the start of the season? Maybe not.

“But as the season has gone on I think we have got as good a team as any in the league, as the table shows, so let’s all be excited about where we are.

“We have 10 games to go, we are joint top of the league so I think we have as good a chance as anyone.”

Boro have confirmed Ryan Fredericks suffered a slight hamstring strain at Nottingham Forest on Saturday. The right-back is unlikely to feature at the weekend as a result, with Emilio Nsue favourite to deputise.