WHERE Middlesbrough end up in the play-off places might have fans debating who they would like to face, but Tony Pulis couldn’t care less – as long they get there.

The penultimate weekend of the Championship season is pivotal, with fifth-place Boro meeting seventh-placed Millwall after sixth-placed Derby have gone head-to-head with automatic promotion contenders Aston Villa.

A Boro victory this evening will guarantee them a play-off battle for the second time in four years, while finding out who they will face in the semi-final would rumble until the final Sunday.

The Villans, Fulham and Cardiff are all competing to finish second behind champions Wolves and that coveted automatic promotion place, with supporters already discussing who they would like to face.

Pulis is having none of that. The 60-year-old is far too experienced to be concerned about that and he is keeping his players focused on the immediate task at hand.

“I’m not bothered at all,” he said. “The only thing I want to do is to get this team performing as well as it possibly can and hopefully we get the result against Millwall and then against Ipswich. Then take it on from there.

“People look forward too much, let’s just get the job done and the job isn’t anything else than beating Millwall.

“I am not concerned, I know we can’t affect anything outside this football club. The most important thing is to concentrate on what we do as a team. The barrier in front of us is Millwall. We have to climb that barrier.

“If you are in the play-offs then there is no way in a million years you can pick this or that team to face, you just want to get there. Then we will look at it if we get there.

“I don’t buy the theory that the team who just misses out on automatic will be mentally scarred. On the day, when you get to big games, it is how the players handle it. That’s the important thing.

“You need breaks, you need luck, you need decisions, there are so many permutations and variables, in respect to winning games of football in high pressure games … you could go crazy thinking about them all.”

By the time Boro and Millwall kick-off they will know what the likes of Derby and Brentford, a point further back, have done. Pulis is keen for his players not to think about elsewhere, though, because he thinks their focus will be affected.

“We could lose the game and the results could still go for us and we are still in it,” he said. “We shouldn’t think about anything else going on. The most important thing is we plan for the minutes we have to play and we are ready for what Millwall throw at us.

“We have to be capable to deal with what they throw at us. What happens afterwards is afterwards. I am focusing, totally, on us and on what we have to do. Come and see me at 7.20 about how we celebrate, I am not going to plan anything like that.

“I have been in the game too long to surmise and to say this or that will happen, why don’t we do this or that? I would rather get over the line and look at it.

“I am pretty superstitious in many ways. We haven’t got over the line, we have a massive challenge in front of us in respect to Millwall. We have two games left, the big challenge is the next game.”

Even though Pulis had managed at the highest level for ten years before his move to Teesside, he still hopes his experience and those of what his players have encountered – particularly the men who have been part of promotion charges – will prove crucial.

He said: “You hope the experience will help. But clubs like Wolves haven’t been anywhere near it for a few years and have done it. Fulham haven’t done it either, Cardiff too.

“There’s pros and cons. It’s 5.30 tomorrow and the players turn up and have to do the best they can. You hope and pray they cross the line as they have in last couple of games.

“I am looking forward to it. I look forward to these games, these are games you should embrace, the players should embrace, it’s a great challenge and you have to grasp that moment and time. Everyone has trained well and we will wait until the game to see if they can perform.”