North End and Swindon can dispel the doubters
IT’S all set up for a battle of the bottlers in the League One playoff final with nine-time post-season flops Preston in one semi-final and seven-time failures Sheffield United in the other.
If those two reach the final, everyone might as well pack up and go home and just allow Millwall to stay in the Championship instead.
It’d be worth it simply to see what happens when the Lions play Rotherham, whose manager Steve Evans was less than kind to them about their relegation.
I don’t expect a bottler battle in the final, though.
The Blades play Swindon, whose enterprising approach arguably deserved better than their fourth-placed finish.
The Robins finished eight points ahead of their opponents and it could have been more had they not dropped off a bit at the end of the season. They should raise themselves for this and can fire their way past Sheffield United.
And while Preston could find some way to mess things up eventually, they look a tasty price to take out Chesterfield. North End have been head and shoulders over the Spireites all season and I’m not expecting them to wilt just because they agonisingly missed out on automatic promotion.
So my money’s on a Preston-Swindon double.
Sorry Millwall.