The play-off finals.

So today the first play-off final get under way with AFC Wimbledon taking on Luton Town at the City of Manchester Stadium. Unfortunatly, it is not available except on pay per view Premier TV. After bleating on about hwow great they are I figured why not give a little run down of the games so far and my preferences now that all the semi-finals have been decided.

Blus Square Premier

Matches: Fleetwood Town vs AFC Wimbledon & Luton Town vs Wrexham.

I think really in all honesty there are very few neutral’s who would not be behind AFC in this competition. I’m friends with one or two AFC fans in London so I have an extra reason to wish them luck. Fleetwood managed to take the sixth place but even with the best will in the world they stood very little chance of making a solid stand. In the other match Wreham have spent a couple of years now in the non-league and could really have done with a promotion to ease finacial struggles so a lot was riding on this for them and i have to say I would prefer them to Luton. After an away trip to Luton and the disgraceful scenes after York City put them out of last years semi-final play-offs I would happily see Luton stay down for a while yet and learn some humility.

Sadly for Wrexham they failed to put up a fight at the Racecourse Ground and went 3-0 down. The return leg at Luton saw them put to the sword with a further 2-1 defeat to see Luton on the road to Manachester.

AFC Wimbledon gained a solid 2-0 win at Highbury Stadiumbefore annihlating Fleetwood 6-1 at their Kingsmeadow Ground in the return leg with over 4,000 fans at each game. Having seen the first twenty miutes of the second leg I was very impressed with the play from Wimbledon who look easily capable of making the step up into League 2. Fleetwood still have a lot of improvement to make if they seriously want to challenge but they have a decent sized stadium and need now to pick themselves up and learn from this experience. Burton have shown that the smaller non-league clubs can develop into a decent side capable of holding their own in the Football League.

This has set up todays match between Luton and AFC at the City of Mancherster Stadium all I can say with a little under an hour to kick off is good luck to Wimbledon and Terry Brown.

Championship

Nottingham Forest vs Swansea and Reading vs Cardiff.

The Championship play-off was an easy one for me whoever won out of Forest Swansea would be my team. One of my friends dad’s is a Forest fan and I have already lost my bets for the season (Exeter to finish above Forest in respective League and Derby to finish above Forest) and they are a great club with  arich history. Swansea I have reasons to dislike given a loose proximity and traditional rivalry (not a big one) not to mention the relgation. However, you cannot question the passion of the Jack’s fans and they have under Martinez, Souza and now Brendan Rodgers developed a very exciting passing style of play which is truly great to watch. On top of this in January they swooped to sign are star man attacking playmaker Ryan Harley who was out of contract at the end of the season and agreed to loan him back to us as part of the deal. After everything Harley has achieved with and for us I would really like for him to get the chance to paly in the premiership. From what I have seen I honestly think he will mae the step up as well.

I work with a QPR fan who is always dismissive of the ‘fake hoops’ now I can’t really coment on that but Reading always strike me as a very dull very plastic side that have been bloated by the money pumped in by John Madjeski to transform them from a side I always considered little different from Britsol Rovers in what is now League 1 into a top end championship side that lacks any real passionate support. I don’t mean to cause any offence to Raeding fans but this is the impression i have and feel they really are not much of an addition to the Premiership. Cardiff on the other hand if they didn’t have the reputation for being a bit of a rwody bunch and there was not the Welsh-English rivalry and again a hang-over from their third (olf fourth) division days of being a close rival match which was always came with a bit of extra spice, over say Carlisle, have got to their current position by excess spending wheather it be on the team or the stadium and is another legacy of Risdale and I hope for football’s sake they start to feel the bite of thier excesses. I apologise to the Cardiff fans who have not had any say in this and have had to suffer Risdale claiming many things which seem to contradict the concensous. A further point was suggested to me and I honestly cannot say if this is based on fact, a rumour or simply made up but I was told the other day that Cardiff were up for the same third party owneship charges as QPR but becasue they come under the juristiction of the Welsh FA, who have no point deduction policies apparently, then they would escape with merely a fine. Again this is simply what I have been told by word of mouth I have not looked into this.

The first game was Notts Forest Swansea and it couldn;t have started with more drama with Swansea full back flying in with studs up to reiceve a red card after just 53 seconds! Swansea ralliedand passed Forest off the pitch in a very brave first half display as they took the game. I did not see the second half but it would seem forest did fight back a good atmosphere and a great game considering it ended 0-0 at the City ground. The retturn leg was really quite something as Swansea came flying out the blocks in the first half and Leon Britton scored an absolute screamer on his left foot. This was followed a few minutes later by Scott Dobbie goal as he flew past a couple of red defenders and slotted away cooly into the bottom corner. With Forest sinking half time was needed Billy Davis was able to get his team refocused and they gave it a real go hitting the woodwork three times I think. Rob Earnshaw’s turn and finish from a perfect through ball set up a great final few minutes with Lee Camp gambling in the dying seconds and going up for a double corner. Swansea broke and Pratley after running fifty odd yards looked up and his pot shot at the empty net from the half way line was perfectly placed to send the Liberty Stadium into ruptures. The Forest fans were exceptional and quite rightly manager Billy Davis made his way through the pitch invading Swans fans to appluad them. Swansea for their part matched their opponents although the massive celebrations always concern me and perhaps show a little nievty. I have learned from experience that sometimes caution and focus are needed at this stage of the paly-off competeion.

Reading vs Cardiff was one of two dire first legs (along with Bournmouth vs Huddesfield in League One) a 0-0 draw but Cardiff appeared to have the edge. There is no doubt the loss of Bellemy was a problem for the return leg but despite the Cardiff fans best efforts to provide the 12th man support Reading thrived with the pressure off tehy chased everything and genuinely played for the shirt. Shane Long capitalising on the calmity that is Steven Bywater’s mistake and a very silly penalty to give Reading a 2-0 lead which they extened to 3-0 in the second half with a great individual effort from Jobi McAnuff. Cardiff really did not turn up and it set up a Wembley final on Monday 30th May between Reading and Swansea it promises to be a good game and I hope if only for Ryan’s sake that Swansea lift the trophy come 5 o’clock.

League One

Bournmouth vs Huddesfield and MK Dons vs Peterborough.

The League One and Two playoffs the most important for me personally as an Exeter fan and this severly affects my preferences. Bournmouth have been fantastic this season however, they have a small squad little money and are going to face intense interest in their players. Bournmouth is in Exeter terms an easy away trip and having lost Scumouth, Swindon, Bristol Rovers to relegation and south coast Brighton and Southampton trips to promotion it has to be said although I would like Bournmouth to have done well I wanted Huddesfield to win. Peterborough is a good one for me personally as I have what is essentialyl extended family there and I like London Road even though naturally it would be a pain in the ass trip. I have built up a bit of a soft spot and follow Peterborough as well as our goal keeper Paul Jones who has decided its time to move on having been on loan there ince January so I was supporting them but hoping they would not win. MK Dons are not a rael club and it is entirely irrelvant if they lose, win, draw. Once they are moved to the very bottom of the pyramid and work their way up I will accept them…maybe.

Bournmouth vs Huddesfield was actually very dull Bournmouth were not in any great numbers and completely silent. Huddesfield took the lead and Bournmouth missed a penalty we got bored and played FIFA instead. The game ended 1-1. The return leg in front of an artificial and orchestrated but brilliant, loud and positive Galpham Stadium support was anything but dull. Twice Huddesfield gained the lead only for a an ever tireing Bournmouth to fight back and to take the game into extra time. Then unbelievably for the watching Huddesfield fans Bournmouth’s Danny Ings to score a wonderful but unmarked header to give them the lead. The pressure was on but Huddefiled came up trumps to pull it back to 4-4 on aggregate and take the games to a penalty shoot out. Bournmouth lost their nerve a poor penalty from Feeney and an unlikly shot off the bar from Robinson allowed Huddefield a rather comfortable 4-2 shoot-out victory.

Peterborough started well at MK Dons taking a 1-0 lead in the first half with that man Craig Mackail-Smith. Disater struck as highly thought of (by everyone except Peterborough fans) Joe Lewis was injured and had to come off at half time to be replaced by our very own Jonah. He has always had his flappy moments and although he is an excellent shot-stopper that os where it well stops. Within  two minutes he had spilled the ball and MK eqaulised then two more goals followed in the 50 and 56 minute never a side to lay down Darren Ferguson’s Posh boys struck back to make it 3-2 at Stadium: MK. The return leg last night was a masterclass the MK Dons brought some very plastic looking very quiet following which did not even fill the away end even though the match was pretty much next door. London Road was electirc though as the Posh fans were in full voice. Happily for Jones he had little to do but what he did he did well looking alert if awkward. Posh quickly got the game under way with a Grant McCann free kick and its certainly not the first time he has done that this season. A tireless McKail-Smith rapped up the victory with a double effort to secure the points. Posh might have made it a cushion when the ref blew for a foul outside the box the ball run through to Tomlin who scored an excellent finish but it was not to count. Many including the commentators seem to have gone for the ref who made a good decision he blew immediatly for a foul and there was no obvious advantage from his position at the time. Also Boyd cheated blatently by diving…karma anyone.

As it happens Huddesfield and Peterborough the best two sides are in the final and it should be an excellent exciting game at Old Trafford next Sunday that I am eagly awaiting.

League Two

Torqauy vs Shrewsbury and Stevenage vs Accrington

For me Torquay or Stevenage here. Torqauy will undbotedly be unable to cope next season especially with the imminent departure of manager Paul Buckle to Britisol Rovers or so the rumour goes. They are an easy trip and an easy six points as Devon’s third side which would be good to replace the three going down. Shrewsbury another nice trip although they have a bit of money and could be a good side. They are also a little bit boring sine they moved from Gay Meadow aground with real character in the town centre to a plastic identikit statium in a lesiure complex that you can’t park at in the middle of surburbian nomans land had they not moved I might have been looking forward to playing them. As it has been Torquay played very well and got a 2-0 win at home outclassing the best placed side and with a dull 0-0 at the Prostar or wahtever its called these days stadium saw them through.

Stevenage would give us a chance to reignite our old conference rivalry with them and the returned Graham Westley. They had to be fair a very good support making use of drums to good effect at home to an Acrrington side who despite overcoming all the odds looked very sluggish and dull a desreved 2-0 win for a very competant Stevenage side confirmed with a 90th minute winner at Accrington means that Torquay will indeed be playing Stevenage at Old Traffor next Saturday and whoever wins I, for one, will look forward to playing them next season.