Middlesbrough’s Grant Leadbitter is ready to play a captain’s role in Championship Play-off Final

It’s 1998, and Grant Leadbitter is a 12-year-old sitting in the Wembley stand with his dad.

Michael Gray misses the vital penalty which denies his beloved Sunderland promotion to the Premier League.

But that painful memory won’t stop the Middlesbrough skipper from doing what has to be done.

He will be the first to put his hand up if tomorrow’s Championship Play-Off Final against Norwich City goes to spot-kicks.

Leadbitter is Boro’s main penalty taker and has a 100% record this season, converting eight out of eight.

17 years ago, the Black Cats finished a classic thriller with Charlton level at 4-4 after extra-time, lost the shoot-out 7-6 and Gray is forever remembered for the miss.

Leadbitter, who as a six-year-old also watched Sunderland lose to Liverpool in the FA Cup Final, says: “I’ve not been back to Wembley since that play-off game.

“I’ll certainly step up if the manager wants me to take the first penalty or any other tomorrow, if it comes to that.

“I think I’ve got a decent record and I practise them every day. It’s worked so far.”

Leadbitter came through the ranks at the Stadium of Light and played 111 times for them before Roy Keane took him to Ipswich.

In 2008, after scoring against Arsenal, he kissed a spot on the turf in front of the dug-outs where the ashes of his father, tragically killed in an accident, were buried.

Ironically, tomorrow he will edge his Boro appearances ahead of his Sunderland total by a single game.

He’s delighted his old club have secured their Premier League status.

After the Black cats draw at the Emirates, he insisted: “I knew they’d get the point they needed.”

But his focus has been on only one game.

“I love Sunderland to bits, but I’ve had more things on my plate than worrying whether they’d stay in the Premier League,” he says.

“I love playing for Middlesbrough and this is the game of the season.

“We need to be positive and perform as we have from the start.

“It’s two games in one. You get promoted if you win and you get to lift a trophy.

“It will mean a hell of a lot for me to play in the Premier League again.

“But it will also mean a lot to the rest of the dressing-room and to everyone at the club from the chairman to the laundry people.

“We’re a tight-knit group and our spirit has got us this far, but it’s only a good season if we get promoted.

“It annoys me when people say we’re a Premier League club in all but name just because we have great facilities.

“We’re not a Premier League club and it’s up to us players to get us back there.

“Aitor Karanka has instilled a winning mentality right through the club.

“You can tell that with the Under-18s beating Premier League clubs to win their league. That’s fantastic for a Championship club.

“The Under-21s have won their league so the club’s in a really good position.

“We want to be in a better position come Monday so the pressure’s on the first team!

“We’ve beaten Norwich twice this season, but that means nothing. If anything they’ll want to put things right.

“They’ve got a lot riding on this game just like we have.”