Middlesbrough

League Position: 4th (2013/14: 12th)

Average league attendance: 19,562 (2013/14: 16,156)

Top league goalscorer: Patrick Bamford (17)

Middlesbrough will have to shake off their Play-Off hangover and start all over again for the 2015/16 season. They reached the Play-Off Final last month but were blown away by Norwich City at Wembley and remain a Championship club.

Boro finished fourth in the league table, and will again be considered one of the leading candidates for promotion. They will have to do without last season's top goalscorer, Patrick Bamford, who returns to Chelsea after a year on loan at Teeside.

Manager Aitor Karanka has exploited his relationship with Jose Mourinho to good effect, with Bamford, Kenneth Omeruo, Jamal Blackman and Tomas Kalas all spending time at The Riverside last season.

They started the campaign with a mixture of defeats and wins, lying in mid-table at the first international break at the end of August. They then embarked on a run of form that suffered only two league defeats until the middle of February, which included victory over Liverpool (Capital One Cup) and a stunning 2-0 FA Cup Third Round win at Manchester City.

From the turn of the year they picked up several wins, turning draws into victory that put them within a whisker of automatic promotion. A 4-3 defeat at Fulham in the penultimate league game of the season allowed Watford to claim a top two place instead.

Middlesbrough were too strong for Brentford over the two legged Play-Off Semi-Final, winning 5-1 on aggregate, but their hopes of reaching the top flight were sunk at Wembley with two Norwich goals in the first 15 minutes.

Owner Steve Gibson is expected to back Karanka in the transfer market so a repeat or better of last season's achievements are not unexpected.