Jake Bidwell has warned Middlesbrough that Brentford should not be taken lightly after it was claimed Boro sat back against Brighton in order to face the Bees in the Championship play-offs.

Grant Leadbitter was happy to knock the ball back to Dimi Konstantopoulos in the final 10 minutes against Brighton, once it became apparent they would be facing Brentford, with the first leg taking place tonight (7.45pm kick off) with the return leg in the north-east next Friday.

Were it to be the case, Bidwell believes it to be unprofessional and disrespectful to them and called on his team-mates to prove them wrong.

He said: “There was a bit of a rumour going around. You try to ignore it and think a team wouldn’t be as disrespectful and unprofessional to do something like that.

“But if they’ve done that and see us as the weaker team, it’s up to us to prove them wrong. We just concentrate on ourselves.

“We’ve proven everyone wrong all season. It’s just another challenge for us to overcome.”

Bidwell is, in effect, one of the longest serving players at the club, behind Sam Saunders, Kevin O’Connor, Jonathan Douglas and Toumani Diagouraga, and it has been a long road from originally joining on loan from Everton in 2011, making it permanent in 2013, to the cusp of the Premier League with the Bees.

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He said: “When I signed permanently, I knew the club was going in the right direction. Being honest I didn’t think we’d have the chance of the Premier League two years on.

“We’ve performed well through the season to give us that chance and now we can take that chance.”

Bidwell has also been amazed at how the club has developed on and off the pitch and believes Brentford can have the setup to survive in the top flight.

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He said: “It’s like a completely different club. In my first game there were 4,000 people and now we’re selling out most weeks.

“The canteen was the gym and it was all rolled into one. Every aspect of the club has kicked on another level.

“If we were to achieve promotion then we’ve got the infrastructure to stay there.”