Not sure how I feel about this. Our away form is very dodgy - don't want us playing away in first leg and falling apart to the point we have so much work to do at home.
Overall 4th in the "away" league table, with the best away defence in the entire division. Absolutely nothing to fear.
I'm sure Walsall enjoyed their 2nd leg home advantage after we had turned them over at Oakwell in a previous Play Off.
Wow you've done it again Sherlock, how do you do it ?. Obviously it depends on the 1st leg, but I mean before that is played. I don't go along with the idea of the 2nd leg at home being an advantage, and the 5th and 6th teams aren't exactly at a disadvantage.
For sure mate, earlier on in the season I would have rather have played away. I think I'm just worrying about the more recent games, Exeter, Burton & Lincoln. I know we hammered Forest green but they were atrocious, and we snatched all the points against Wycombe (after Ainsworth left iirc?), but performances have been shaky. I think the only team we've beat away in the league is Wednesday from the playoffs? (assuming Peterborough don't nick a place in the play offs obviously). But we have hammered teams around us at home by multiple goals so even if we do end up going behind in that first game I'd be somewhat confident our lads can pull it back
Bear in mind though we don't do coming back. Every game we've won we have scored first, and every game we've lost the opposition scored first. Hope that stat doesnt hold up over 2 legs!
I'm confident in Duff it won't be! You could suggest we've 'bottled' a little under the pressure with our away games and potentially ruined our chances at autos, but I don't particularly subscribe to that. As long as we cut out silly mistakes and don't concede anything from our own doing, I think we'll be fine!
No such thing as home and away advantage now away goals rule isn't used. Meaningless, pointless 90 mins. Should be a one-off Semi at Old Trafford, Villa Park or St James' park. Then final at Wembley.
I'd have a one off semi final with the higher placed team at home as a deserved advantage for finishing higher in the league.
Agreed, no advantage at all as far as I can see from our playoffs record. 2000, A, H - Won 2006 H, A - Won 2015 H, A - Won 2021 H, A - Lost
To be fair we were so much better than them (and the rest of the division) at that point it made no difference. Only thing more remarkable than that run from January was the fact that same squad was bottom of the league in November and still in the relegation zone at Christmas.
Incredible them play offs. Not a single doubt or worry from me in all 3 games. 100% believed we would win every game.
Of course we could do what we did to Birmingham away in 2000. The home game then was a bit meaningless. Happy days !
This is true but also true that we rarely conceed the first goal: Home 4 times in 21 games Away 8 times in 22 games Total 12 times in 43 games Or to put it another way, in 78% of all games we score first.