Swindon Town: The 2011 Play-Offs

Hello Everyone and welcome to the final edition of  the 2010 /2011 season which sees Swindon Town in the Coca Cola Championship Play-Offs.

The first leg of the play off arrived and I was going to have to make an enforced change as goalkeeper Tom Heaton who had been outstanding all season was out with a minor injury so veteran David Lucas was back between the posts, otherwise we were at full strength Birmingham as expected came at us right from the kick off and took the lead after only 5 minutes after the defense was twisted inside out by Gary O’Conner. Jacob Mellis equalized from the spot four minutes later when Brandy was shoved in the back running into the box. Brandy then gave us the lead on 35 in typical style running onto a through ball from Munoz. Birmingham then laid siege to our goal and got their equalizer right on the interval. The second half was end to end stuff with both sides creating useful chances but Birmingham finally converted one into a goal ten minutes from the end. Roman Gasmi then went on a dramatic run down the left flank from the kick off and I screamed at him to square the ball to an unmarked Brandy but instead turned around and played it back to the half way line. What was that all about??? Gasmi got it right though second time around and found 18 year old Haris Vuckic who kept his head and banged home the equalizer it was 3-3. We held on to the final whistle and now have home advantage for the second leg.

Back to the County Ground for the second leg 3 days later and the atmosphere was electric in front of a capacity crowd. The home fans didn’t have to wait long to celebrate as Munoz, Mellis and Gasmi interchanged a beautiful sequence of  passes to set up Brandy for the opening goal after 7 minutes. That goal ignited Brandy who then began to run the Birmingham defense ragged with some twisting and turning runs but try as he may couldn’t get a second goal. After all that pressure it was Birmingham who got the next goal with Lee Bowyer breaking away on the counter attack. Brandy though wasn’t finished and set up Sissoko, tapping inside from a Sichi through ball and we were up 2-1. At half time I encouraged the team to keep going and Sichi again turned out to be the provider making a darting run down the right flank and dragging back to a charging Mellis to smash into the back of the net. Birmingham’s heads dropped and we could have scored more but were unable to convert those chances. The final whistle blew and we had won 3-1 to the astonishment I think of everyone. We are on our way to Wembley to face Crystal Palace in the play-off final!

Our final game of the season and it’s at Wembley in front of 61,000 roaring fans; it doesn’t get any bigger than this for a provincial club like Swindon Town. I fielded an unchanged team that was so successful in the second leg against Birmingham but from the opening kick off we looked very apprehensive about pushing too far forward even though I’d set an attacking tactic. Palace were playing much the same way so everything was breaking down in midfield until after 42 minutes when Geoffry Adjet miss-timed his tackle on Scannel giving Howard Webb no choice but to award a penalty;1-0 at half time. During the break I tried to “rally the troops” but we seemed even more lethargic than the first half so things were not looking good. Palace created themselves a couple of good chances but David Lucas in goal was equal to the task and stopped what he had to. Febain Brandy who had been quiet all game suddenly came alive and created some space for himself and Mellis picked him out beautifully to make the score 1-1 after 72 minutes. Palace came right back at us, creating wave after wave of attacks though somehow we kept breaking them down. With the prospect of extra time very much a reality Palace pushed everyone forward but Munoz broke down their attack and his well executed pass found Sissoko just inside the Palace half, the flag stayed down and Sissoko raced forward and coolly slotted home. Goal!!!!

Referee Howard Webb then looked at his watch and blew the whistle for full time. What a dramatic end to the game and the season, we were going up to the Premier League. In some ways I felt sorry for Crystal Palace who were the better team on the day but we fought well and never gave up. Now we can relax and enjoy some well earned time off before planning for our Premier League campaign.

So that’s it. I can hardly believe that we have made it to the Premier League. Even if we go straight back down I feel I have accomplished something for a change and thanks for all your support along the way this season.

Finally, again thank you for taking the time to read my posts and I’m already looking forward to next season.