The Play-Offs: Older, Wiser, No Less Bonkers

I remember my fortieth birthday very well. Hard not to; it was one of the hottest days of the year and my birthday is right at the end of September. We returned home after a big(ish) family meal and sat outside until around 2am.

The freakishly hot weather (almost 100 degrees) melted the cake (or at least the bits my brother-in-law hadn’t already eaten) but, despite the temperatures, I was remarkably cool about turning forty. I’d had a mild panic-attack ten years previous to that, so this one felt like a breeze.

The EFL Play-Offs celebrate the big 4-0 this year. I’ve a feeling the EFL, and a lot of fans, are going to remember this one for a while too. But they rarely disappoint, and whether they are goal-laden such as Swindon 6-6 Sheffield United, or tense goalless affairs like we’ve seen this season, they are almost always impossible to call. Unless you’re Southampton.

First and foremost, as a fan, I’m a huge fan. They are – along with the back-pass law – probably the best thing that English football has introduced into the game. They’ve created numerous standout moments in the last forty-years, but also have given clubs much more to play for as the season drew to a close, something that is hard to quantify but that has added so many more levels of drama and jeopardy for fans up and down the country.

It's difficult now, and almost impossible for those under fifty, to imagine a Football League without them. But there was a time, believe it or not, when the top three (or four) teams simply went up to the higher division at the end of the season.  

Take my first season as a fully-fledged fan. I’d started going to Walsall games in the1982/83 season and got a season ticket the one after that. In 83/84 we finished sixth. Then 11th in 84/85 and then came what is probably my favourite season ever. Talk about peaking too soon.

It was the season of the Canon League (as it was known, and before the Premier League was formed) when two teams across the divisions set off like rockets. In Division One (the top one, although I can see why some will get confused) it was Manchester United who set the pace after winning their first ten matches, and thirteen of the first fifteen. They were what seemed like an unassailable ten points clear in November. But I know all about unassailable leads, and with three points for a win (that being the third best thing to be introduced) it wasn’t enough. They were hunted down and eventually caught after Christmas, and the title became a three-way with Liverpool, Everton and West Ham United before it was decided on the final day.

But in Division Three, the Red Devils start was made to look almost stuttering by a Reading team who won their opening 13 games and led the rest by a country mile. After being held by Wolves towards the end of October, they won seven of the next ten to virtually assure promotion by Christmas, and despite a tail-off in the latter part of the campaign, they still won the league with a fairly-sizable 94 points.

Six and Out

Walsall had been one of the teams beaten in that early blitz. Yet they were also mounting a promotion bid and had won seven of their first ten games. But things went into overdrive when we beat Cardiff 6-3, and Bournemouth (4-2) before Christmas and then met the runaway leaders, Reading, on the first day of February.

Memories of the game linger. It finished 6-0; with the pick of the goals from a certain Craig Shakespeare if I remember correctly. It’s easy to forget as we then repeated that score line against Bristol Rovers a few weeks later, and he scored another screamer in that one too. But a sloppy end to the season, especially at home, saw us finish in a respectable sixth for the second time in three seasons, despite scoring 90 goals (23 more than Reading!).

But, remember, these were the pre-play-off days. Sixth meant missing out. We’d finished on 75 points both times (and coincidentally also 4 points clear of seventh in both) but the season was deemed a failure. If only there was a way that it could be prolonged and made more interesting for longer.

As it happened, we were ahead of our time. The next season, the Football League introduced the play-offs, amid quite a bit of criticism and controversy at the time. It wasn’t fair – some said – that a team played 46 games to finish third, and yet potentially lose out to a team who were several points and places off.

Screw that, said me and millions more. You see, it only really affects the team (and fans) of the team that finishes third. And that wasn’t me/us (yet! We’ll come back to that).

That first season was so unique. The play offs were not initially envisaged as the tension-fest they are today. They were introduced for two years, primarily to help facilitate the reduction of clubs in the top division from 22 to 20. The Football League were playing ‘wait and see’ but indicated that if the play-offs proved successful with the public, they’d be retained.

They were, as you’ve probably concluded, successful.

The first seasons saw a slightly different format to what we now know and love. A team from the higher division was also included (meaning that Walsall’s sixth places wouldn’t have been enough anyway) in the four-team competition, with home and away legs for the semi-finals and final. This format lasted two seasons.

For the record, Charlton Athletic, Swindon Town and Aldershot were the winners in the first incarnation.

Having the finals at Wembley (and Cardiff for a spell) began in 1990, and the play offs have remained more or less the same ever since. In fact, next season, sees the first significant change as two more games are introduced in the Championship, meaning the clubs in seventh and eight enter at the first stage.

And as a fan, of the play-offs and a club with a rather chequered play-off record, I’m in a pretty good place to tell you how it feels as a fan at every step of the way.

Winning A Final Over Two Legs

It had to happen. Walsall, after some near misses, managed to finish third in the third tier in 1987/88. But now, instead of automatic promotion. it was the [dreaded] play offs. I wasn’t entirely won over at this stage. A two-legged win over Notts County meant a final against Bristol City who’d beaten Sheffield United from the higher division. The powers that be hadn’t fully worked out the intricacies at this stage, and after a 3-1 away win, and 0-2 home defeat, there was a penalty shoot-out to decide….home ‘advantage’! Which we won. In the third and final game we won 4-0 and celebrated long into the night. I was officially won over.

Winning A Final at Wembley Cardiff

It had to happen. Walsall had never been to Wembley. You had to be an England Schoolboy to stand a better chance of going to the national stadium than a Saddlers fan in those days. And then they knock the old girl down, and we get to the final the season after. Still, Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium was a pretty good alternate and we beat Reading 3-2 after extra time. As a fan, it was awful that day. It rained non-stop, and Reading led for most of the game, and from the first minute of extra time. It was only at the very end that Walsall managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. A brilliant end, for sure, but not one for the finger nails for most of the first 115 minutes. I decided there was just too much at stake.

Losing the Semi Final

After years of enjoying the – admittedly Walsall-free - play-offs, 2015/16 was the season I had a little wobble and concluded they were – after all – not fair. We’d been neck and neck with Burton Albion all season but somehow lost too many home games and were pipped on the last day. We had to win by a lot, at Port Vale, and hope Burton lost. We did our part, but Burton secured the point they needed. Cue some very deflated players and fans. On leaving Vale Park (how can you win 5-0 away at a local rival and still trudge despondently to the car?) I remember hearing that Barnsley had won at champions Wigan to sneak into the play-offs but it didn’t quite register. It did a week later as Barnsley – cock-a-hoop and glad to be there – ran riot in the first leg and killed the tie. We’d been 10 points better off that season but they had the freest of free hits that afternoon and we were there for the taking. I told anyone who’d listen that the format was too advantageous for the club finishing lower. No one listened. Well, except the National League.

Winning the Semi Final

I’ve said before in other articles that the semi-final win over Chesterfield last season took in two of my favourite games as a Walsall fan. Lots of noise, sunshine, great goals and that ‘going to Wembley’ feeling are hard to beat on a spring evening. As a fan it’s the high point and makes up for all the crap we put up with 95% of the time.

Losing the Final at Wembley

It had to happen. The only other time we’d been to Wembley (2015) had ended up in abject disappointment. 35,000 Saddlers fans arrived in hope, but the team failed to show (I’ve said this to many people and those outside of the UK always think that they somehow got lost on the way and the other team got a walkover). But in 2025, they kind of did it again. I realised I’d become immune to it. I could see, from my brilliant vantage point, that we were not going to score and if AFC Wimbledon did, we’d be done for. It was both heart-breaking and, strangely, not anywhere near as bad as I thought it might be. Wembley is no place for losers, but it’s also no place for clubs that don’t get there.

 And at least by doing so, me and my Dad got to have a lovely meal and sit in the posh seats while our team toiled on the pitch. It wasn’t perfect but you take what you can get.

 They they’ll never take that away from us.

 So Many Happy Returns, EFL Play Offs. Here’s to another 40 years.

And despite everything I’ve said, please don’t be a stranger.