The England Under-21s centre-back has enjoyed an impressive season at the Riverside, forming the meanest defence in the league alongside regular partner Daniel Ayala.
Despite seeing their automatic promotion hopes fade in the club’s final two games, Gibson and his team-mates’ dreams of the Premier League remain intact as they secured a spot in the play-offs.
And ahead of the first-leg of their semi-final at Brentford on Friday, Gibson says it is games of this ilk that inspired him to pursue a career in football.
'You play for these massive occasions'
Gibson on the play-off challenge ahead
“You play for these massive occasions and this club has struggled since it got relegated to get near the play-offs. Now we are in it we are going to enjoy it and make sure that we leave our mark on it. It’s up to us to make this moment count,” he told MFC.co.uk.
“We’re really excited – this was our aim at the beginning of the season. Obviously that changed a little bit because of how well the season had gone – we wanted automatic promotion.
“But there’s no getting away from it, at the start of the season we wanted to be in the play-offs and it is great that we have achieved that and we are really looking forward to it.”
Although many are suggesting that Boro’s momentum has gone after a 4-3 defeat at Fulham ended their top-two aspirations, and their final game was a goalless draw with Brighton on Saturday, Gibson is adamant the squad on Teesside is chomping at the bit ahead of their visit to west London.
“The second half at Fulham showed that anything but energy levels are dropping. With 10 men we came back to make it 3-3, obviously it swung their way in the end but it could have gone either way and we could have been playing for the title in the last game,” he said.
'We're motivated for the massive and exciting challenge ahead'
“That’s gone now and there’s no problem with energy levels. We have fit and good players and a motivated squad for the massive and exciting challenge ahead.”
Middlesbrough have done the double over the Bees this season in the Championship, but Gibson says all that goes out of the window come Friday.
“It was a real tough game [at Brentford]. We won 1-0 and defended really well, but we were a little bit sloppy on the ball and didn’t really do ourselves justice on that day. Hopefully this time we will go and perform how we want to and get a similar result.
“Our record against those teams has been fantastic – we’ve beaten every team in the play-offs. Those games are gone now though, and we have to look at Brentford as a completely new game.”
Brentford take on Middlesbrough on Friday 8 May at Griffin Park, kick-off 7.45pm.
