IT’S Preston and not the Premier League this weekend for Middlesbrough as the season kicks-off, the Teessiders again bidding to claim a place in the topflight.

Promotion hopes have elevated since last season’s near miss, and manager Aitor Karanka is doing little to play down expectations.

Having gone agonisingly close to reaching the Premier League in May, losing the play-off final, he acknowledges that supporters are looking forward to the next nine months.

He said: “It's true that the expectation is high because we played the final at Wembley last season, we were close to automatic promotion and I can understand everybody is excited.

“When I came here there were 12-14,000 people in the Riverside and for the final two games last season there were 33,000.

“I like the pressure, I prefer to be in this position than the position I was in when I came here because it was completely different. We were playing to stay in the Championship and 18 months later we were at Wembley playing the final. Now we are more mature and a better team.

“At Wembley the atmosphere they created was amazing and we have to work together and they know that I am going to put everything on the table to take the best from the players.”

Those players make up a squad better than this time a year ago, believes Karanka, although he would like to make more additions before the transfer window closes.

Asked about promotion, he said: “At the moment it is the aim, but now I don't have the squad that I would like but I have said and I will always say that my squad is the best in the league and signed them because they showed me that I can put my hand in the fire for them.

“They showed me every single day in the training session with the attitude that they have that they are amazing lads and amazing players and for this reason we have to fight from the first game thinking about promotion.

“We are better because, for example, 12 months ago, we started the season without Patrick Bamford, without Jelle Vossen, without Ryan Fredericks, without Clayton, without Damia, so we are now much better and we are much better in terms of players and in terms of a team.

“The team is confident, the team is more consistent and for this reason are better now than we were 12 months ago.”

Recovering from losing to Norwich City at Wembley took some time, concedes Karanka, the manager revealing that the defeat cast a shadow at the beginning of pre-season training.

He said: “I think it was difficult for me and the players because I was speaking to them when we came back and we all had the same feelings.

“The first two weeks maybe we were thinking about the final, but after two weeks all of us were thinking about this season and everything was forgotten.

“We are now focusing on the new season, new players are arriving and everybody is excited about this season.

“The most important thing is that all of us learn from the mistakes we made last season. We are more mature now, we are a better team now and we have more experience now so I think we are stronger than we were last season.”

A number of additions have been made to the squad, star signing Stewart Downing dropping down to the Championship for the first time in his career.

He is sure to start tomorrow at Deepdale against a team who went one better than Boro in May by winning at Wembley.

They won promotion from League One by overcoming Swindon Town and Karanka expects the Lilywhites to be on a high.

He said: “It is their first game at home after promotion. The first game is always difficult and sometimes you can go with confidence because you played a final at Wembley and they played last season in League One or that we beat them in the Capital One Cup last season – we would be making a big mistake.

“We have to think that it will be a very tough game because they have a good team, a good manager, they got promotion last season so they will be confident.

“They will fight from the first second to the 95th minute because it is their first game at home in the Championship so it is a good opportunity for them to show everybody they are a Championship team.

“Everybody is going to fight harder against us than they did last season because last season we were a surprise but this season we are not.”