WHAT has been the biggest North-East football game of the last 30 years? Middlesbrough’s Carling Cup final, perhaps, resulting in the club’s first major trophy, or the Teessiders’ appearance in the UEFA Cup final in Eindhoven? Newcastle United’s Champions League nights or Wembley outings in the FA Cup and League Cup finals? Sunderland have also played in a League Cup final as well as play-off finals under the Arch. Regrettably, all three clubs have also featured in massive matches that have led to their relegation from the top-flight.

There have been plenty of memorable occasions, but in terms of sheer magnitude, none can match the game that could be on the cards at the end of the month if things go to plan for both Middlesbrough and Sunderland over the course of the next week. If – and admittedly, as things stand, it is still quite a big if – the North-East’s two Championship clubs can win their respective play-off semi-finals to set up a regional head-to-head at Wembley in the play-off final on May 27, it will be the biggest North-East game for a generation.

There have been all-North-East non-league finals in the last couple of decades, but never before have two North-East teams met at Wembley in a major final. True, the Championship play-off final does not have the same stature as an FA Cup or League Cup final, but in terms of what it might mean to the two teams involved, it is arguably even more significant. The £150m game. The £180m game. The £200m game. Just imagine what it would be like if Boro and Sunderland were taking each other on for a place in the Premier League.

Both clubs have to negotiate their respective semi-finals first of course, and for all that neither looked like being play-off contenders for most of the first half of the season, their route to the end-of-season shootout has looked rather different in the last few weeks. Boro have been in the play-offs for a while now, and have effectively been marking off time in their final three matches, waiting for the semi-finals to begin. Sunderland’s play-off place remained in the balance until the final half-hour of the season, and was only confirmed after the most dramatic of final days at Preston. Now that the dust has settled, though, they begin again as equals.

Sunderland are back into action first, hosting Luton Town at the Stadium of Light on Saturday teatime before heading to Kenilworth Road on Tuesday night. Consolidation was the name of the game for the Black Cats at the start of the season, following their promotion from League One last term, so even when the battle for a top-six spot was at its most intense in the last few weeks, it has felt as though the pressure was off.

No one was expecting or demanding promotion at the start of the campaign, a situation that still really applied at Deepdale at the weekend. Will that change now the promised land of the Premier League is so near? It is all very well playing down the prospect of promotion when you are sitting in 12th position in the table. It is somewhat harder when you are just three games away from the top-flight.

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Sunderland played with attacking abandon in the second half of Sunday’s game at Preston, and were impossible to contain as a result. With Amad Diallo, Jack Clarke and Patrick Roberts in the team, and with a defence that lacks a natural centre-half, attack is clearly the best form of defence for Tony Mowbray’s side. That makes them extremely dangerous opposition, and even if they were to draw or lose Saturday’s first leg, it would take a brave person to rule out the possibility of them waltzing into Kenilworth Road and blowing Luton away with the kind of three-goal blitz that did for Preston at the weekend.

Can you play that way in a play-off semi-final? You suspect we are about to find out because Mowbray is not the kind of manager to sacrifice his footballing principles at the altar of play-off pragmatism, and even if he was, he doesn’t have a team that looks capable of shutting up shop. Perhaps Luton’s physicality will ultimately make the difference. Or perhaps this free-flowing Sunderland side will continue to confound expectations.

Middlesbrough’s expectations are set higher than Sunderland’s, largely because Michael Carrick’s side have occupied a top-four spot since mid-January and were battling for automatic promotion until the final three or four weeks of the campaign.

That said, it is still worth remembering that Boro were languishing in 21st position after Carrick lost his first game in charge at Preston in late October. Their rise since then has been remarkable, so whatever happens in the next three weeks, the Boro boss has performed heroics to turn things around.

Does it matter that after sweeping allcomers aside for most of the second half of the season, the Teessiders have stuttered as they have failed to win any of their final three matches? Ideally, you’d like to be going into the play-offs on a winning run, but there have been mitigating factors behind Boro’s drop-off, with injuries arriving at an inopportune time and Carrick wanting to rest some of his key performers.

I wouldn’t be too worried about Boro’s last three matches – come Sunday lunchtime, and their semi-final first leg at Coventry, Carrick will have his players back at full tilt. Jonny Howson would be a big loss if he was unavailable, but Boro remain strong in all positions and boast plenty of big-game experience in their ranks. They start the play-offs as deserved favourites to win promotion.

Four semi-final matches; two teams to go through. If Middlesbrough and Sunderland can make it, May 27 will be a truly historic occasion. Teesside v Wearside at Wembley. The £200m game? It really would be priceless.