Playoff Contenders - a brief view

Who will it be?
By Albatross
May 9 2005

So the four Playoff Contenders are confirmed, and Hartlepool United are one of them. One of us will be going up to "The Championship", or Division 1 as I still think of it; who will be the favourites to win at Cardiff?

Pools, Tranmere, Sheffield Wednesday, Brentford. One of the four of us will be taking our place in Division 1 next season, but which one of us?

It has to be said that none of the four of us are in what you might call top form. Often one side has secured their place with a good late run - but in this case, the sides in best form came into it slightly too late to get into the playoffs, notably Bristol City and Huddersfield.

First of all, our Playoff opponents. Tranmere have been secure in the playoffs for some time - and with their hopes of overhauling Hull for an automatic spot also long gone, Brian Little hasn't exactly had the players busting a gut recently. In fact, they've won just one of their last five games - against Port Vale - and have lost three of those games, against Brentford, Swindon and MK Franchise. This last defeat may mean Pools have some unexpected support on the South Coast for the Playoff games; Tranny weren't at full strength for the game with Franchise, although they can point at one or two injuries, and the reaction from those in Torquay has not exactly been positive as they have gone down in part due to Franchise's victory. That defeat may also have cost them the services of Danny Harrison; the midfielder was stretchered off and may have ligament damage to his ankle.

Brentford claimed fourth place, and arguably have been the side in best form out of the four of us. Even so, until last Tuesday's win over Wrexham they had lost three games on the spin. Saturday saw Allen resting what players he could in anticipation of the playoffs, but the fringe players did him proud as they beat Hull 2-1. They will certainly fancy their chances, although tiredness could be a problem; their replay-strewn FA Cup run means that should they make it to Cardiff, they'll have played 60 games this season. For a squad that's not the biggest, that's a lot of games.

Sheffield Wednesday meanwhile could hardly be going into the Playoffs in a worse state of mind. They've won precisely one out of their last nine games, and their injury and suspension hit season wasn't helped by keeper Paul Gallacher's dismissal against Bristol City. Unless Paul Sturrock gets it overturned, he faces the prospect of having to start the first leg with David Lucas - out of first team action for almost two months with a knee injury - in goal.

And what about Pools? We are currently on a run of three games without a win, although the performance to earn a draw against Bournemouth was considerably better than the two defeats that preceded it, and with one win in six games. The injury news is improving though, with Joel Porter hopefully fit for the games with Tranmere. And Jon Daly's performance at Dean Court was good enough to earn him rave reviews and suggest that the man we were assured was one of the worst ever to play for Stockport could yet have a vital role to play in firing us into the Cardiff final. Wouldn't that be ironic?