Waiting Championship Play-Off Showdown
This weekend sees Sunderland and Sheffield United face off at Wembley in the Championship Play-Off Final. For a long time now, this one-off showdown, with the prize being a place in the Premier League, has held ‘the richest game in football’ moniker and for good reason.
Why? Well given the Premier League’s untold riches, drawn primarily from worldwide broadcasting rights, the winners are set to bag a reported £170m should they emerge victorious under the famous arch. Not bad for an afternoon’s work.
“I would rather we went up automatically, but there is something special about doing it at Wembley in a final,” said United manager Chris Wilder last week, himself having tasted play-off glory, albeit on a lesser scale, when he took Oxford United back to the Football League in 2010.
And it’s not difficult to see why…
With the ticket allocation split 50-50 down the middle, the game generates a raucous, full-capacity atmosphere undiluted by the corporate intake that soil other showpiece finals; there’s also an intensity to the game fuelled by players keen to swap the Kassam Stadium or The Den for Anfield or the Emirates, not forgetting the chance to rub shoulders with contemporaries many would have encountered only by playing FIFA.
“It’s usually a red-hot day and on a big pitch it’s energy-sapping,” recalls Kevin Phillips, who has experienced both sides of the Play-Off Final coin, scoring but losing in 1998 for Sunderland on penalties following an epic 4-4 encounter against Charlton Athletic, before returning in 2013 to net the only goal of the game – from the spot – as Crystal Palace beat Watford.
Just walking out of the tunnel, it’s something you can’t really explain unless you’ve experienced it – a cauldron of noise, colour and fireworks. It takes your breath away.
When you add what’s at stake from a financial point of view for the clubs involved, the players’ desire to play at the highest level for the first time or maybe make a return, and the intensity that comes from the crowd, it often makes for a cracking game of football.
Charlton’s aforementioned victory in 1998 was one such occasion, remembered mostly for its subplot in which Sunderland-born Clive Mendonca netted a hat-trick for the Addicks, while fellow Wearsider Michael Gray missed the final penalty in the subsequent shoot-out.
And there have been others. Swindon Town beating Leicester City 4-3 in 1993; Bolton Wanderers defeating Reading by the same scoreline two years later; and who could forget Blackpool’s fairytale rise under Ian Holloway in 2010 (Cardiff City on the losing side) or Luton Town’s equally emotive win, on penalties, against Coventry City two years ago. But this game can captivate without the net bulging every five minutes. It took a last-minute Bobby Zamora goal to raise the roof for ten-man QPR against Derby County in 2014, likewise a solitary Levi Colwill own goal secured Nottingham Forest their top-flight return after 23 years following victory against Huddersfield Town in 2022.
Such games encapsulate the breathtaking drama and raw emotion that are often unique to this fixture, yet it hasn’t always been this way.
Prior to 1986, there was a rigid three up, three down system in place which, for those teams plodding away in mid-table, it made for a sterile final few months of the season – in an era when crowds were already tumbling due in part to hooliganism gripping a game played out in crumbling, archaic stadiums.
In an attempt to breathe new life into the game, the 1985 ‘Heathrow Agreement’ included a structural reorganisation of the Football League, which included reducing the top division from 22 teams to 20 and the introduction of play-offs to facilitate the change.
The play-offs were brought in at the end of the 1986/87 season, initially for two years, with the provision that if they were successful then they would be retained permanently.
Initially, the format was somewhat experimental. The play-offs featured clubs both from the division above and below, battling for spots in the higher league and conducted over two legs on a home-and-away basis. However, by the 1989/90 season, the system evolved into a straightforward format: the third to sixth-placed teams in the second tier competed for the final promotion place to the top flight – a system, that in the main, was replicated in the lower divisions of the Football League.
From 1990 the finalists also played at Wembley Stadium, elevating the profile and prestige of the games, with Swindon the inaugural second-tier winners, only to see their place later taken by losing finalists Sunderland due to financial irregularities engulfing the Wiltshire club.
For the winners (bar Sunderland aside that season) to walk the steps and lift the play-off winners trophy, there is no better feeling. For the losers, it’s total desolation: the blood, sweat and tears put into a 46-game season, likewise three play-off games, counting for absolutely nothing. And let’s remember, there have been many occasions where teams who have finished third-place in a regular season have seen their dreams end in the Wembley turf by a team coming sixth. That’s the joy, and the jeopardy, of the play-offs beautifully executed in one afternoon’s football.
“I’ve experienced both emotions,” added Phillips, whose senior career started just a stone’s thrown from Alchemy HQ in Baldock, Herts. “I remember the desolation of the changing room after that Charlton game and the total joy of scoring the winning penalty and lifting the trophy for Palace.
Wembley is no place for losing finalists, trust me, but when you’re on the winning team, there’s no better feeling. You can relax, enjoy your summer, and look forward to the new challenges coming your way. For the losers, you’re right back to square one, where everything you’ve worked so hard for counts for nothing.
So will the inevitable sunshine that accompanies this fixture be radiating down to the Black Cats or the Blades? Wilder’s men – who finished third – go into the game as the bookies’ favourites but Phillips is not ruling out his former club – who finished fourth – given their last-gasp win at the semi-final stage against Coventry City at the Stadium of Light.
I think Sunderland will adopt the same tactics (as the semi); on a big pitch, possibly a red-hot day, they’ll conserve energy and hopefully take their chances with a counter-attack or a set-piece. I know what Premier League football would mean to the city, so I’d love to see it happen again. It should be a great game.
Five Championship/First Division Final Thrillers
1993 Swindon Town 4 Leicester City 3
Swindon had cruised in a seemingly unassailable 3-0 lead either side of half-time, player-manager Glenn Hoddle among the scorers. Brian Little’s Foxes then hit back with three goals in a 12-minute spell only for Paul Bodin to score the winner from the penalty spot six minutes from time.
1995 Bolton Wanderers 4 Reading 3
The Royals scored twice in the opening 12 minutes and that scoreline remained until the 75thminute when Owen Coyle netted for Wanderers. Fabian De Freitas then equalised four minutes from time, and with the momentum with them, Bruce Rioch’s side got the job done in extra-time.
1998 Sunderland 4 Charlton Athletic 4
Incredibly, this game was only 1-0 at half-time. By the end of the 90 minutes it was 3-3, by 120 minutes it was 4-4 and so to spot kicks. Every player had netted, meaning it was 7-6 in the Addicks’ favour. Up stepped Michael Gray, his weak effort saved by Sasa Ilic, and the Londoners were going up!
2010 Blackpool 3 Cardiff City 2
With just 13 minutes on the clock both sides had scored, setting the tone for what was to follow. Joe Ledley then handed the Bluebirds the lead but two quickfire goals before half-time from Gary Taylor-Fletcher and Brett Ormerod secured the Tangerines’ first return to the top flight since the 1970/71 season.
2023 Coventry City 1 Luton Town 1
A decade after playing Conference football, Luton were also back in the top flight for the first time in 31 years. While the game finished 1-1, Luton had two efforts chalked off through VAR. And so to spot kicks. Coventry’s Fankaty Dabo missed the crucial final penalty to send the Hatters through.
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