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Championship Playoffs | Final
May 25, 2015 at 3pm UK
 
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Norwich City captain Russell Martin: 'It's the right playoff final'

Norwich City's Russell Martin believes that facing Middlesbrough in the playoff final is the right outcome as they were the two top seeds in the Championship playoffs.

Norwich City skipper Russell Martin has said that "the league doesn't lie" after the Canaries set up a Championship playoff final with Middlesbrough.

Norwich and Boro finished eight and seven points above fifth and sixth-placed Brentford and Ipswich Town respectively in the table before coming through their semi-finals with relative ease.

Boro overcame Brentford 5-1 on aggregate, while Norwich got the better of bitter rivals Ipswich 4-2 over two legs.

Looking ahead to the final which takes place in a week's time, Martin told reporters: "It just shows that over the course of the season, the league doesn't lie.

"Whoever it was going to be, we would have wanted to beat them to get to the Premier League, it's as simple as that."

Norwich might have finished above Boro in the table, but they lost both games against the Teesside outfit this season, going down 4-0 at the Riverside before being edged out 1-0 at Carrow Road.

"Middlesbrough are a good side," Martin added. "They're really organised and they're hard to break down.

"We're disappointed with how we played up there but that was a long time ago now. We played relatively well at Carrow Road, but they got the result."

The top two seeds in Leagues One and Two also made this weekend's finals at Wembley. It is only the third time since the playoffs began that the highest-placed two teams in all three divisions have made it through to the final. The last time this happened was in 2000.

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Goalscorers Patrick Bamford and Garcia Kike of Middlesbrough celebrate after the FA Cup Fourth Round match against Manchester City on January 24, 2015
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