Football FanCast
columnist Andy Davies looks ahead to the most lucrative 90mins in
world football - the Championship play-off.
It's the most lucrative game in club football worth an
estimated £60 million to the winners and this season's Championship play-off
final is sure to be one of the most exciting yet. At the beginning of the
season Bristol City were being tipped for relegation by the bookmakers while
Hull were also backed to struggle after fighting relegation in their previous
campaign. But both teams have proved their doubters wrong and who ever achieves
promotion will surely do themselves proud in the Premiership next season.
For both these clubs to get to the play-off final is a
massive achievement in itself and both teams and their managers deserve a lot
of credit for work they have put in over the season. Phil Brown who has now
been in charge of Hull for nearly two seasons has done a brilliant job in
avoiding relegation last season and then mounting a promotion challenge this
season. After three seasons in the Championship, Hull has really established
themselves as a force to be reckoned with. They have never been in the top
flight and they are one of the biggest clubs in Europe never to have seen the
likes of Manchester United and Liverpool play at their stadium, so you could
say they are due Premier League football.
Bristol City on the other hand were last in the top flight in 1980 and as most City fans are aware, after relegation from the first division, we suffered two more relegations in consecutive years were almost extinct in 1982. Thankfully my beloved club are still here and Saturday would be a fantastic day if we could bring Premier League to Bristol for the very first time. Under Gary Johnson we have seen an unbelievable transformation in the quality of football in just under the three years since he took over in 2005. As I am sure most city fans will agree he should have won the award for Championship manager of the season. A statement which has also been echoed by Phil Brown himself.
Head to head both sides are quite evenly matched and there was only one point difference in the league table at the end of the season. In the two games they played each other this season, Bristol City are unbeaten winning at home and drawing away and I can only hope City remain unbeaten. But Saturday is a cup final and so previous results go out of the window and what matters is who performs best on the day. Both teams beat their opponents Crystal Palace and Watford comprehensively and no one can deny that the two best teams are in the final. But which team will hold their nerve and win?
Not surprisingly the bookmakers have made Hull the favourites for the game and once again City have been made the underdogs, which might just work in our favour. We have been written off as serious contenders all season and against Palace, we were again made the underdogs but we upset the form book and we have every chance of doing the same thing again on Saturday.
As was always going to be the case despite both clubs each receiving an allocation of 36,000 tickets, many fans missed out on tickets with ticket touts buying large numbers of tickets selling them on at sky high prices, depriving real football fans the chance to see their team in probably the biggest game in their history. With many true supporters being left disappointed the club seriously need to look at how they sell tickets for big matches in the future. Fortunately for some Bristol City fans, the club were able to release an extra 2,000 tickets which resulted in supporters camping out over night at Ashton Gate to ensure they got a ticket.
I have tried my best to make this articles balanced but I must now say, Come on you REDS!