Phil SumblerThe Swans and Brentford will be the main event of the afternoon as the two sides go head to head for the right to play in the Premier League next season and pick up an estimated ยฃ170m kitty in the process.
The prize on offer is a mind boggling amount of money and managers and agents up and down the country will be watching this result with interest as they know that whoever triumphs will all of a sudden have a completely different view as to who may be on their summer shopping list.
Make no mistake, both clubs will have drawn up two very different looking plans ahead of today’s game.ย One will be the plan that they follow from tomorrow morning if promotion is achieved, and one is what it will look like should they leave Wembley this evening as the beaten finalist and facing up to another season in the Championship.
Very rarely in football do you get a game like this where the result can contain two very different paths but today is one of those occasions and we have to embrace and enjoy the drama that goes with it.
As a Swans fan, I am lucky to have experienced the highs and lows of play off campaigns of the past.ย Promotions against Torquay and the small matter of the one against Reading but final defeats to Northampton and Barnsley still hurt.ย ย I have maintained since that very first play off campaign that there is no better way to get promoted than via this route but losing them hurts, losing them at the final stage hurts alot.ย ย Losing them at the final stage in the way we have lost both of ours hurts for a long time.ย ย Would I scrap them though?ย ย Absolutely no chance!ย They give you something to play for when the automatic prizes become out of reach and they add drama, excitement, nervousness and tension to a game like there is no other.
Both sides need to go out onto the Wembley turf today knowing that this is the last chance and give it all that they have got.ย ย Don’t get me wrong you don’t throw the kitchen sink at them from the first minute but games like today are made for heroes and in each side there are players capable of holding that mantra, we just hope that more of them are wearing the black and white, sorry turquoise and reddy colour, of Swansea City.
The build up has been a little under a week since we both booked our place today and whatever the final ticket allocations ended up as and whoever takes to the side today we will watch what we hope is a great game, a Swans win and another promotion party in the city.ย If it doesn’t work out like that then we just have to hope that we look back and say “We gave it everything but on the day it wasn’t meant to be”ย (that is after the swear words, the can kicking and the disappointment has worn off!)
Brentford of course go into the game on the knowledge that they have never won a play off campaign.ย In fact they have the pressure of a knowledge that they are only one of two sides (with Crewe) to have lost four play off finals.ย ย They have also appeared in three football league trophy finals and lost them all.ย ย They do say that records are there to be broken but lets hope that this is one that isn’t broken today.
They are the first side since Aston Villa to make two successive play off finals at this level and could be the first since Leicester City in 92 and 93 to lose two on the bounce.
Records like this should mean nothing to players on the pitch but Brentford still have the hurt of their final defeat last year although that is possibly balanced by our memories of losing the semi finals last year against today’s opponents.ย ย Ah, do you know what, having looked at all these numbers they mean nothing, this is about 90 minutes between two sides who have been reasonably even matched for the three years since we dropped out of the Premier League.
It may not quite have the anticipation of our last trip to Wembley in this particular fixture.ย ย It may not have the close to 90,000 capacity crowds that we have seen for the last two finals we have contested.ย ย However, this is still the Championship play-off final.ย It is still a chance for two sides to book a place at the top table for next season.ย And it is still a game that will dramatically change the route the winning team will take in their decisions for next season.
It’s the big one, we are off to Wembley and let’s get behind the boys for one last time this season.
