Sinitta is on Channel 5 on that Rylan chat show wearing a Hull City scarf as a boob tube. They've congratulated us on getting to the final.
Going back to the OP, and now that the play-off finalists have been decided, I think there's a case for changing the format of the play-offs to make it fairer for teams finishing in a higher league position. It doesn't sit right with me that a team that finished 6th and 15 points behind an automatic promotion place (and behind the team finishing 3rd) has a relatively straightforward path to the play-off final and potential promotion. Having the second leg of the semi-final at home isn't that much of an advantage relative to performance across the whole season. Also, Wednesday was never a serious contender for automatic promotion at any stage whereas Brighton and us were serious challengers for virtually the whole season. I'd like to see the Football League adopt a similar system for the end-of-season play-offs to the one used by all the football codes here in Australia (AFL, NRL & A-League), which gives more of an advantage to teams finishing in a higher league position and better reflects what happened over the course of the season. My suggestion for a revised play off system is as follows (home team first and extra time and penalties if required): Round 1/Week1 3 v 4 - winner to the play-off final, loser to round 2 5 v 6 - winner to round 2, loser eliminated Round 2/Week 2 Loser of 3 v 4 plays winner of 5 v 6 - winner to the play-off final, loser eliminated Week 3 Play-off final This gives the higher placed teams the advantage of a 'double chance' and potentially a week off, which could be significant at the end of a long and gruelling season. Yes, I know that the gap between 3rd and 6th will vary from year to year but 3rd still only has a success rate of just over 50% based on Cortez's statistics, and 4th has performed worse than 6th over the last 11 years, 9% versus 18% success rate (yikes!). Thoughts?
Or you could do that the 3rd place team are in the final, and the winner of 5th and 6th places plays the winner of the 4th team for a chance to play in the final?
Or even better still ........ sack the play-offs and automatically promote the team who, after a 46 games and slog of a season, have earned third place on merit. Controversial or what?
**** that, the play off is exciting and gives more of the league purpose. Get rid of the play offs and half the season for half the league is effectively dead rubber. I've no problem with the way it is but wouldn't mind the changes people have been talking about as mentioned above either, which in fairness does reward finishing higher position. I don't get why all of a sudden everyone seems to think the play offs are unfair, I don't recall it getting this wide a debate any other year.
The play-offs are **** - I thought they were **** in 1987, and I still think they're **** now .......... you want to be promoted? Get in the top three on merit, over the 46 games. This is just my opinion, I'm an old ****, I like tradition.
The play-offs are brilliant, they've given a massive boost to the end of the season and nothing needs to change. Before we had them, too many teams had nothing to play for and there were loads of drab meaningless games in April/May. People have short memories.
So long as you dont go the route that we did and keep adding in more and more teams into the playoffs.
The play-offs are the thing which make the Championship one of the most exciting leagues in football. Very few teams are not in a position when they can either be relegated or promoted for the majority of the season, and that makes the league so much more competitive than it otherwise would be. If you come 3rd and can't beat the 6th place team over two legs then tough, you should have performed better when it mattered.
Who fancies us to turn up vs Wednesday then? Do I need to remind people that we have a 100% record at Wembley against Sheffield clubs...
Every time I feel positive about beating them! I can't stop thinking weds will be just as confident about beating us! If that makes sense?
From Phil at HDM yesterday: #hcafc sold 13k tickets on the opening day of sales for Wembley. Club reminding pass holders they have until 1pm tomorrow for their priority
