Swindon secure play-off final slot after crazy night of seesaw action
|
Version 0 of 1. Love them or loathe them, the play-offs often generate an excitement that can rarely be replicated throughout the nine months of a regulation season. There is an undiluted frenzy about the end-of-term shootouts. Swindon Town and Sheffield United proved the point time and again last night in a pulsating League One semi-final second leg at the County Ground that ended 5-5, the highest-scoring play-off in history. It is the Wiltshire side – just – who go through to the final at Wembley, where they will meet Preston North End on 24 May. It will be Swindon’s fifth final and they have won three of their previous four. Whatever transpires later this month, against a Preston side that has yet to experience promotion in nine previous play-off campaigns, is unlikely to match the craziness at the County Ground. After 18 minutes the tie should have been done and dusted. Swindon already led this match 3-0 and, to go with their 2-1 first-leg win at Bramall Lane last Thursday, that appeared more than enough. Not many teams come back from 3-0 adrift after 18 minutes. Nor do they recover from 5-1 down on aggregate. But United nearly did both. On the night they trailed 3-2 at half-time; then 4-2 and 5-3 in the second half; and then, in the 90th minute, it was suddenly 5-5. How there were no more goals or drama in the near nine minutes of stoppage time – a minimum of seven minutes had been indicated by the fourth official – goodness knows. Even for the neutral the rollercoaster of goals and emotions had been compelling. “It was torture,” Mark Cooper, the Swindon manager, said. “I can’t really put into words what I’ve just seen. It was just a freak of a game. I don’t think there’ll ever be another [play-off] game like that. It was like two heavyweight boxers trying to punch each other out. “Fair play to Sheffield United. They were 3-0 down but they kept going, gambled everyone forward and kept scoring. And we kept scoring. It was a ridiculous game. We’ll just enjoy the night and the feeling of getting to Wembley. I think we need to do some work before we get there, perhaps do a little bit more on attacking.” Cooper was joking. His players were not when, with less than 20 minutes on the clock, they led 3-0. They were ruthless. Ben Gladwin struck twice past the United goalkeeper, Mark Howard, who had saved a Gladwin penalty in the first leg – and Michael Smith snaffled a third. A Nathan Thompson own-goal and a Chris Basham diving header at least gave United some hope before the break. The madness continued in the second half – 4-2 from a Smith penalty, 4-3 from a Steven Davies header and 5-3 through Jon Obika. Then United really rallied, going to 5-4 through Matt Done and then, in the 90th minute, 5-5 courtesy of Che Adams. Swindon held on, somehow gallantly repelling Nigel Clough’s warriors. “Just to get to Wembley is a remarkable achievement,” Cooper added. “We know we have our faults. We can’t have everything but we’re not bad going forward. It was just one of those nights. If we’d have kept playing, it could have been 10-10.” “The fact we were still going in the 97th and 98th minutes was encouraging,” Clough said. But “you cannot describe how disappointed we are,” he added. |