DAEL Fry is one of the senior statesmen in the Middlesbrough squad and has been talking about the excitement for his seventh season in professional football. 

At the tender age of 23, Fry has clocked up 139 appearances in a Boro shirt and is destined to make plenty more. He's one of the first names on the team sheet and plays a pivotal role in the heart of the Boro defence. 

Having had injury troubles to contend with for back end of last season, Fry has been involved with a number of pre-season friendlies and is raring to go for the new season. 

Boro will face newly relegated opposition for the second consecutive year on Sunday having started their season away to Watford last year. 

Fry is adament that can bode well in their favour and he and some of the newest talent in the Boro squad are capable of causing an upset.

Fry said: "It’s always good to play the teams that get relegated from the Premier League because in the Premier League, the tempo is a bit slower and when they come back to the Championship it’s 100mph and hopefully we give them a bit of a shock.

"It will be good to see where we are at really.

"The lads who we’ve brought in have been fantastic. The attitudes great. There’s no bad eggs as they say, they are all fantastic.

"The togetherness this year is fantastic and we’re all looking forward to getting started really."

Neil Warnock will et to enjoy walking in front of a crowd of Boro supporters for the first time on Sunday at Craen Cottage, a moment he says he will savour.

Fry is also equally as excited to see a strong Boro crowd follow them down to South London this weekend. 

"We’ve missed them (the fans) so much. There’s been times when last year when we’d won a game and you’d expect the fans to be cheering in the crowd but you don’t quite get that but this year they are back in.

"Like I say they are the twelfth man and we can’t wait to get them going really.

Fry added: "We have found it difficult at times. Sometimes when it’s going tough in games, we just need them there. Like if it’s a 50-50 tackle and they start roaring, that gives us a momentum really. This year they’re back in and I’m so excited, can’t wait."