The Big Match Preview: Playoff Final Thoughts

By Albatross
May 27 2005

Cardiff here we come! Hartlepool United and Sheffield Wednesday meet at the Millennium Stadium for the last place in Division 1 (sorry, "The Championship") next season. Glory awaits for one of us - but who will win through?

So here we are then, at long last in a Playoff Final - and just one game away from potentially facing the likes of Leeds, Coventry, Southampton and the other teams in Division 1. Win and it's the big boys - lose and it's Scunthorpe, Yeovil, Doncaster and the rest in our current league. The fact that we're even here is a sign of how far we've come - and this side could write itself into the Poolie history books by achieving promotion to the top half of the Football League for the very first time.

If we do make it we'll certainly have done it the hard way though. While for much of the season we were well into the top six, and even harboured thoughts of challenging for an Automatic Spot up until about the end of February, we only won three of our last 14 games, saw our Manager depart just three days before the last game of the regular season, and eventually had to rely on a final day draw with Bournemouth to get into our fifth playoff campaign. And after taking a 2-0 lead in the first leg of the semi final, only the brilliance of our defence (and Dimi Konstantopoulos in particular) allowed us to reach extra time before finally taking the victory on penalties.

All that though is now in the past - and Sheffield Wednesday, a club that we suddenly seem to have become linked with over the last couple of years, stand in our way. When Chris Turner and Colin West left Pools to take on the reins at Hillsborough we were two divisions apart; then suddenly we were in the same one, and with the likes of Graeme Lee, Brian Barry-Murphy and Paul Smith in the Owls lineup it became a great thing for Pools to finish ahead of our previously more illustrious rivals. This season looked like we were once more going to finish well ahead until Turner's sacking and the arrival of Paul Sturrock saw Wednesday turn their fortunes round; and despite a similarly poor finish to the season they eased past Brentford in the semi-final.

Pools of course have the knowledge that it's a mere six weeks since our last meeting - and that finished in a convincing victory for us. Boyd's hat-trick underlined our dominance that night, and had the Radio Sheffield commentators getting their excuses in very early on - apparently the game shouldn't have been played because of the conditions, presumably the fact that Pools made better of them had nothing to do with it.

As far as team news goes, Wednesday are trying to keep Pools guessing somewhat with a squad of 27 travelling down to Cardiff! Many of those are highly unlikely to be involved in any case - the injured strikers Steve MacLean and Adam Proudlock for example are more likely to be sitting in the stand than even making the bench. It's set to be James Quinn and Lee Peacock that will be trying to get the better of the Pools defence.

Martin Scott meanwhile faces one or two hard choices to make. Mickey Barron is possibly our only injury doubt but will probably be fit; but does he go with Tinkler or Strachan in the middle, Butler or Williams on the wing, and possibly most difficult, Porter or Daly up front? I'd guess that he'll choose Porter, who has been outstanding for much of the season, leaving Daly to be brought off the bench should we need to mix things up.

Predictions? You must be joking. I hope it will be a win for the team in Red, that goes without saying - but a final score or scorers? Sorry, it sounds too much like tempting fate for me. Both sides deserve to be there, both sides have everything to play for, both sides have reasons to think they can win. Only one will - I just want it to be Pools.