Championship Play Off Final A Tale Of Two Cities

The championship play off final at the new Wembley stadium will be Bristol City versus Hull City after both clubs came through their respective 2nd leg matches.

Both Crystal Palace and Watford had their moments in the 2nd leg but in the end Bristol and Hull won convincingly and can quite rightly claim to be the better team on the strength of the two matches.

Since promotion play offs were introduced we have quite often seen the clubs that have narrowly missed out on automatic promotion flatter to deceive while the team that just sneaks into the play off places at a late stage tends to go on and do well.

That has not been the case this season and this years championship play off final will be contested by the 3rd and 4th best teams in the division who seem to be particularly well matched and are led by two astute managers in Gary Johnson and Phil Brown.

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Man Utd Win Premiership As Reading And Birmingham Relegated

Manchester United clinched their 10th premiership title in 16 seasons with a win at Wigan Athletic on the final day of the season finishing a clear 2 points ahead of nearest rivals Chelsea who only managed a draw with Bolton at home although in fairness the news from the JJB stadium filtered through to just about everyone inside Stamford Bridge anyway and the miracle that the blues needed never looked like materialising.

It will be interesting to see how Chelsea react to missing out on the premier league crown when they meet United in the champions league final as they will need to get over this disappointment and pick themselves up.

At the other end of the table Reading despite a 4-0 win at Derby were still relegated and after a great season last year which surprised many observers this term has been much the opposite and the loss of Steve Sidwell was probably a factor.

Joining Reading and already relegated Derby was Birmingham City who like Reading conjured up an emphatic win against Blackburn Rovers to no avail the brum fans apparently gave the board some stick which led to David Gold and David Sullivan hinting that they may now quit the club.

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Advantage Bristol And Hull City In Championship Play Offs

After the 1st leg matches of this years championship play offs both Bristol City and Hull City will feel they have a definite advantage having pulled off impressive results away from home.

Veteran Hull City players Dean Windass and Nick Barmby scored to edge the Tigers closer to the play off final and Watford who have been struggling of late and only just made the play offs will require a massive effort to overturn the 2-0 deficit in the return match at the KC Stadium.

Bristol City meanwhile snatched an injury time winner against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park and duly celebrated on the pitch at the final whistle which did not go down too well with Palace boss Neil Warnock who claimed the celebrations were over the top.

There have been plenty of occasions in recent years when teams have won the 1st leg away from home then lost the 2nd leg on their own patch so it is not a forgone conclusion that Bristol City and Hull City will be meeting in the play off final and certainly Eagles boss Neil Warnock and his team will be fired up and looking for a result at Ashton Gate in the return leg in what promises to be an explosive encounter and if I was a betting man I would not write Palace off just yet.

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Championship Winners And Losers

The championship season came to a thrilling climax yesterday with the outstanding promotion and relegation issues resolved with Tony Mowbray's West Brom winning the title and Stoke City managed by Tony Pulis finishing as runners up.

Any club that wins promotion to the premiership these days knows that they will have their work cut out just surviving but it can be done if funds are spent well.

Bristol City, Hull City, Crystal Palace and Watford are the teams that will battle it out for the championship play offs and the final promotion place with Palace fancied by some to go all the way with Neil Warnock having a great record at various levels with the play offs.

Relegated to League one along with Colchester United and Scunthorpe United were Ian Holloway's Leicester City whose final tally of 52 points saw them relegated by just the one point at the Victoria Stadium while Stoke City and their fans celebrated promotion to the premier league.

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