Prediction: Playoff heartbreak for Wolves

By: Matt | May 3rd, 2008

Will Wolves season be over on Sunday at 4pm, or will we be preparing ourselves for the playoff rollercoaster ride? Pride or pain? Hope renewed or stoic failure? Your guess is a good as mine. In fact the Championship has been so unpredictable this season that my grandmother’s guess is as good as mine (and just incase you’re wondering, no she’s not a football fan).

Its been a surreal season in the Championship. Call me biased, but I think the Championship is the most exciting league in the world, played in front of the highest crowds of any other second tier league on the planet. Many fans claim that this season the quality has been lower than ever, pointing to the inability of any one or two teams to dominate the league as evidence.

My view is that the quality is as good as ever, if not better, but shared more equally across the league than ever before. West Brom, for example, can win the title with 78 points, while a team could be relegated with 53 points. In other words, 25 points over a 46 game season could be the difference between promotion as champions and relegation. In the last eleven seasons nobody has won the title without crashing through the 90 point barrier. Also during that period no team has gone down with 53 points. Up until only a few weeks ago anyone could have gone up or down. Literally anyone can beat anyone. Last week, for example, promotion chasing Watford lost at home to already relegated Scunthorpe.

This is the way football should be, not dominated by the few. Share the wealth, share the power, share the excitement. I wonder if Derby fans have really enjoyed their football more this season in the Premier League, than they would have if they they’d played the season out in the Championship. I enjoyed our last season in the Premier League but the journey there was better than the real thing. Maybe if we had maintained our Premier League status my view would be different.

So, on to tomorrow. The good news is that captain Karl Henry is fit again, and boy has he been missed in the engine room. So the first eleven should be quite straight forward:

Hennessey
Foley - Craddock - Breen - Elokobi
Jarvis - Olofinjana - Henry - Kightly
Keogh - SEB

Whether Eastwood will be on the bench, ready to bring on if were are chasing goals remains to be seen. As for the other games, having seen the team news for Burnley I can’t see Crystal Palace dropping any points, although Watford could come a cropper at Blackpool. However, my gut feeling is…

Blackpool 1 Watford 1
Crystal Palace 2 Burnley 0
Wolves 2 Plymouth 0

Wolves miss out on the playoffs, finishing on the same points and goal difference as Watford in sixth but losing out on goals scored. Heartbreaking I know. Dry your eyes mate, there’s always next season.