The curtain finally came down on the English domestic football season over the weekend, with Hull City, Doncaster Rovers and Stockport County winning play-off finals to earn promotion to the Premiership, Championship, and League 1 respectively.
Love them or hate them (and I’ve seen my team lose twice in the finals and once in the semi finals!), you can’t deny that the play-offs are full of tension and drama, and keep the League season alive right to the end.
As for the games themselves, Bank Holiday Monday family duties meant I didn’t see any of the Stockport versus Rochdale game, but Stockport came from behind to win 3-2 and consign Rochdale to their 35th straight season in the bottom tier of English football.
On Sunday, Doncaster Rovers won promotion to the second tier of English football for the first time in 50 years, beating Leeds United 1-0 at Wembley. It’s hard to see them challenging instantly for Premier League status, but they play a good brand of football, have an ambitious chairman and a neat new stadium, so hopefully they will do well in the Championship.
Rovers winning goal was scored by James Hayter, which seems quite appropriate given the amount of scorn and bile being poured out onto the various Leeds message boards by fans of other clubs.
It rather begs the question, are Leeds the most disliked and unpopular club in England at the moment?
Well, like Millwall, they revel in a ‘no-one likes us, we don’t care’ attitude. Whilst their manager Gary McAllister seems to be one of footballs nice guys, there certainly seems little goodwill around, either for their fans or their gruff and oft controversial chairman, Ken Bates. They’ve had very little sympathy, despite the 15 point deduction they received from the FA, for ‘financial irregularities’, at the outset of the season.
No doubt the citizens of towns with Championship teams will be glad of at least another year without a visit from the Whites, while places like Hartlepool, Carlisle and Tranmere will once again be battening down the hatches in preparation for their arrival.
Q. Which is the largest city in England which has never hosted top-flight football?
A. Well, it is currently the City of Hull, but come August there will be a different answer to that question, as that city, which is better known for its two Rugby League teams, takes its place amongst English football ‘elite’.
Hull City fully deserved their victory over Bristol City, in the so-called 60 million pound match, and it was fitting that a Hull born player, with arguably the funniest name in English football, Dean Windass, should notch the winner. He’s been a decent player for a lot of years.
What can the Hull fans look forward to next season? Well the first thing is to look out for huge price increases to watch their team at home and especially away – Chelsea a particular rip off. The other will be bizarre, baffling, and often unexplainable refereeing decisions usually favouring the ‘so-called’ bigger clubs. Just don’t expect to get penalties when your players are fouled in the box! Enjoy……………!
Can Hull City (or Stoke City or West Brom, the other Premiership ‘promotees’) survive? Well, it will be tough, no question, but at least they can looking forward to bettering Derby County’s all-time worst total of 11 points for a whole season.
Surely…….?
By Dava McCamm.