The CCC playoff's 2008

[Dirko]

Seeya Crystal Palace...

Bristol 2 def Crystal Palace 1 in extra time to go through on a 4 - 2 aggregate.

Bristol are going to Wembley !!


Bye Bye

[Dirko]

Hull City 4 def Watford 1

They are through to the playoff final against Bristol City @ Wembley on the 24th May...

seeya

[firstblood]

It's been over 25 years since Bristol played in the top flight and Hull have never been there. It wasn't that long ago Hull were sitting on the bottom of the last division and almost dissolved as a club.. Good luck to both teams. 60 Million pounds for the winner and at least a year in the premier league.

[Dirko]

Leeds def Carlisle 2 - nil over night to go to Wembley on aggregate 3 - 2.

Win at Wembley and they are back into the Championship...

[johntheclaret]

Bristol City v Hull
CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF FINAL
Venue: Wembley Date: Saturday, 24 May Kick-off: 1500 BST
Coverage: BBC Radio 5 Live & BBC Sport website plus full commentary on BBC Radio Bristol, BBC Somerset and BBC Radio Humberside.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bristol City manager Gary Johnson has a fully-fit squad to choose from for the Championship play-off final against Hull and could field an unchanged side.
Midfielder Lee Johnson has recovered from a heel injury, but is preparing himself to feature as a substitute.
Hull also have no injury worries going into the match at Wembley, with Dean Marney fit again after a knee injury.
However, manager Phil Brown could also keep faith with the XI that saw his side beat Watford in the semi-final.

BIG-MATCH FACTS
Bristol City and Hull City contest a £60million winner-takes-all showdown for a place in the Premier League, in the richest club game in world football.
This is a tale of two cities, neither of which have ever hosted Premier League football.
It's 28 years since Bristol City were last one of the elite; Hull have never played at the highest level in their 104-year history. Hull is thought to be the largest city in Europe not to have hosted top-flight football.
The East Yorkshire club have also never played at Wembley; the west country concern were last there eight years ago.
Bristol City qualified for this final by beating Crystal Palace 4-2 on aggregate in the semi-final. Spectacular efforts from Lee Trundle and Michael McIndoe in extra time at Ashton Gate, settled the issue.
Home-town boy Nick Barmby scored in both legs of the semi-final, as Hull ended Watford's season with a 6-1 aggregate victory.

The Table
Hull ended the regular campaign in third place on 75 points, four points outside the top two - matching their highest finish of 1909-10. It was a dramatic improvement on last season, when they concluded the campaign one place and seven points above the drop-zone. Hull were in danger of going out of business in the early 80's when the receivers were brought in. In 2003-04 they were competing in the fourth level, but under Peter Taylor they experienced back-to-back automatic promotions to League One and then the Championship.
Bristol City ended the normal season in fourth on 74 points, five points outside the top two. They were one of five clubs to lead the Championship table during the season, and were top as recently as the first week in April. City were last promoted to the top-flight in 1976 and spent four seasons there. Their highest placing in those four years was 13th in 1978-79. But in 1906-07, the Robins achieved the club best of league runners-up.

BRISTOL CITY
Current form
Won the last three.
Ended the regular league season with a 3-0 home win over Preston, following a sequence of one victory in 10 games.

Play-Off history
This is Bristol City's first play-off appearance at this level and fifth in all. They're yet to gain promotion through them. They failed to reach the second tier in 1988. Joe Jordan's side finished level on aggregate with Walsall in the two-legged final, but lost the replay 4-0. Again they tried to gain promotion to the second level in 1997, but John Ward's team were defeated by Brentford in the semi-finals. It was the same story in 2003 for Danny Wilson's outfit, when Cardiff ended their interest. A year later, Wilson's side went one stage further, defeating Hartlepool in the semi-finals before succumbing to Brighton 1-0 at the Millennium Stadium.

The Manager
This is Gary Johnson's first experience of the play-offs as a manager. Five years ago he was in non-league management with Yeovil - now he has opportunity to take a club into the Premier League.
After winning promotion as League One runners-up, Johnson guided Bristol City into the Championship's top six where they stayed all season, and only fell out of the automatic promotion spots in the last month, when just four points from a possible 15 were garnered.

Play-Off fact
The club finishing fourth has only been promoted to the top-flight three times in the last 19 years of play-off competition.

Wembley appearances
Bristol City lost 1-2 to Stoke in the final of the Auto Windscreens Shield on their last appearance at Wembley Stadium on 16 April 2000. It was their third Wembley final in the competition, or one of its' predecessors. They beat Bolton 3-0 on 24 May 1986 to win the Freight Rover Trophy. The following year they again reached the final and drew 1-1 with Mansfield after extra time, before losing 5-4 on penalties.
The Robins have played in one FA Cup final, but their 1-0 defeat to Manchester United in 1909 was played at Crystal Palace.

HULL CITY
Current form
Won the last two, and eight of the last 11.
Missed out on an automatic promotion place with two defeats in the last three games, having shot up from 14th on 8 December to second on 15 April.

Play-Off history
The Tigers have only once featured in the play-offs. They lost to Leyton Orient over two legs in the semi-finals of the Third Division competition in 2001.

The Manager
This semi-final is Phil Brown's first experience of the Football League play-offs as a manager, although he has been involved as a coach and a player.

Play-Off fact
The club finishing third in the second tier has been the most successful in the play-offs in the last 19 years, winning promotion on six occasions, including the last two (Watford and Derby).

HEAD to HEAD (All competitions)

These clubs have met over 70 times since 1905. Bristol City have had the better of the exchanges of late. They are unbeaten in nine (all league games), winning seven and drawing two since the Tigers' 2-1 victory at Boothferry Park on New Years Day 1985 in the old Third Division.
This season, these clubs drew 0-0 at the KC Stadium on 27 November, despite City playing the whole of the second half with 10 men, after defender Jamie McAllister was sent off for two bookable offences. The Robins won 2-1 at Ashton Gate on 1 March with a goal in each half from Dele Adebola and Jamie McCombe. Hull's score was an own goal from Liam Fontaine in first half stoppage time.

[JK]

Windass finishes off some good play with a cracker of a volley, Hull 1 Bristol 0 51 mins in (considerable delay for what appeared to be a decent injury)

[JK]

Hull hang on 1-nil and now head to the Premiership .. Their defence was pretty awesome and kept them up desite a coupla scares

[johntheclaret]

Go to bed C_P, it's very late.

[Dirko]

What a volley...absolute cracker...

Well done HULL, welcome to the big league

[McAlmanac]

Windass will be 40 before the end of next season. Good on him. He only first played professionally at 22 and was a handy player at Bradford (top scorer for them in Premier League). He's had some good spells at a number of clubs (got dropped once for a playoff final at Sheffield United), so good luck to him.

[johntheclaret]

I think he was released by Hull when he was 18?