HAVING experienced play-off final heartbreak with Hartlepool United, Dimi Konstantopoulos is determined to be part of a happier ending when Middlesbrough take on Norwich City for a place in the Premier League on Monday.

Boro head to Wembley to take on the Canaries almost ten years to the day since Konstantopoulos was part of a Pools side that came within eight minutes of winning promotion to the Championship in the League One play-off final at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.

Hartlepool led Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 before eventually slipping to a 4-2 defeat in extra-time, with Konstantopoulos, who had been the penalty hero as Pools beat Tranmere on spot-kicks in the semi-final, producing a series of fine saves to keep his side in the game during normal time.

A decade on, and the Greek shot-stopper finds himself back in the play-off spotlight with Middlesbrough, and while the stakes might be even higher this time around, the 36-year-old is hoping his end-of-season experience could be crucial.

“Life can be strange sometimes, and it’s funny how these things come around,” said Konstantopoulos, who was Boro’s third-choice goalkeeper when he moved to Teesside from Greek side AEK Athens in 2013. “That was a remarkable game and a big day for the club, but in the end the result was a massive disappointment.

“This is a different team and a different situation, but I will try to use my experience from that day to help the lads.

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“Having played in a game like that, it’s another tool to take advantage of on the day, and I will try to use it, but we have enough experienced lads in our team to control the game. The Hartlepool game is something I can draw on, but hopefully the outcome will be different this time around.”

Hartlepool were undoubtedly the underdogs in 2005, but it is much harder to split Middlesbrough and Norwich this season, with the two sides separated by just one point in the final Championship standings.

Norwich’s final-day win over Fulham meant they finished a point ahead of Boro, but Aitor Karanka’s side completed the double over their final opponents in the regular season, with a 1-0 win at Carrow Road following a 4-0 victory at the Riverside.

With around 38,000 supporters heading from Teesside to roar them on, Boro’s players will have to deal with a great deal of expectation in four days time, but Konstantopoulos is confident his team-mates have the strength of character to cope.

“It’s a bigger pressure than the Hartlepool final because, back then, we weren’t really expected to win,” he said. “We went into the game with everything to gain and nothing really to lose, and while we gave it a good go, it didn’t quite pay off in the end.

“This is a very different situation because Middlesbrough is a massive club which really needs to be in the Premier League. The pressure is on us to go out and win the game, but all season, we’ve proved we can handle this sort of pressure.

“There have been quite a few crucial games where we have been on top. This is one more of those, and we just have to play it as such and not be overawed by the occasion.”

Wembley was being redeveloped when Martin Scott led Pools to the play-off final, so the game was staged in Cardiff rather than London.

As a result, Konstantopoulos will be making his Wembley debut on Monday, and the popular shot-stopper is looking forward to doubling the number of Greek players who have been involved in a club game at the national stadium.

To date, the only Greek player to have graced a Wembley final is Nikos Dabizas, who was a member of the Newcastle side that lost 2-0 to Arsenal in the 1998 FA Cup final and part of the Magpies team that returned 12 months later to suffer another 2-0 defeat to Manchester United.

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Konstantopoulos counts Dabizas as one of his closest footballing friends, and just as he can remember sitting down to watch his compatriot make history 17 years ago, so the Middlesbrough keeper is expecting more interest from his homeland come Monday afternoon.

“I was only a kid when Nikos played for Newcastle, but I remember watching the games and supporting them because of him,” he said. “I seem to remember him making a mistake for one of the goals unfortunately.

“He’s a good friend of mine and it’s quite an honour to be the next Greek to play for his club at Wembley after him. Hopefully, I will talk to him afterwards.

“It was big news back home when he played at Wembley, and although this is not an FA Cup final, it is still big in Greece. Everyone knows I will be playing to get into the Premier League, and there is massive interest in that.

“Wembley is known all over the world, and I’ve already had calls from back home congratulating me and wishing me luck for the final.”