The 72 football teams in next season's four divisions now all know what league they will be playing in after the play-offs have now been completed. Yesterday saw Huddersfield take on Sheffield United in the battle for Championship football.
The game was very edgy throughout with the likes of Jordan Rhodes and Ryan Flynn put their mark onto it. With Sepp Blatter looking for a way to declare a winner without penalties, it was perhaps fitting to see one of the play-offs go all the way to the dreaded lottery.
In all fairness, it may be a penalty shoot-out to be forgotten as only two of the first eight penalties were scored. Neill Collins scored for United at the second time of asking before Peter Clarke equalised for Huddersfield in round four. Andy Taylor then hit the post which took the game into sudden death. The attempts gradually got better and we got down to the keepers. Alex Smithies blasted his penalty past Steve Simonsen before the former Everton stopper fired his effort high over the bar. Huddersfield win 8-7 on penalties and the Galpharm Stadium will witness Championship football next season.
Crewe met Cheltenham in the League Two play-off and had arguable more action than Saturday's match. The deadlock was broken after 14 minutes when highly rated 18 year-old, Nick Powell, scored a wonderful goal on the turn. Cheltenham looked to respond straight after and hit the crossbar just two minutes after going behind. They also led a late charge in first half injury time in which the ball was cleared off the line twice.
The second half saw both keepers produce good saves to keep the score at 1-0. But the games was all but over eight minutes from time when another Crewe graduate, Byron Moore, curled the ball into the bottom corner following a great team move. Alexandra will be playing their football in League One next season.
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