So that's nearly it. The end of the SkyBet Championship season. Leicester securing promotion to the Premiership, followed swiftly by confirming their status as champions. That's all really boring though, isn't it? Similar to Manchester United last season and Lewis Hamilton in the Formula One. No one wants to watch that. Where does the interesting stuff happen? Fighting for the play-offs, and right at the bottom.
Let's start with the Play-offs. Derby, QPR and Wigan were all confirmed to be heading for the Play-offs before kick off today. Only Reading, occupying 6th place as the day began, could drop out. All they needed to do was win and they'd be in with a chance of going to Wembley for the final. The complicated maths involved in possible permutations of scorelines meant that if they lost or drew and Brighton won, Brighton would end up sixth. If they both lost and Blackburn won, with a seven goal swing in their favour, Blackburn would go through.
As it was, there were seven goals in the Blackburn game, but it was all but one-sided. Blackburn beating Wigan by one goal in an epic 4-3 thriller. So Blackburn were out of contention. However, Brighton were still in it. With 32 minutes, plus stoppage time, left on the clock, Reading were locked at 2-2 against Burnley, who had already won promotion. This scoreline wasn't going to change, so it was up to Brighton to seize the initiative. Which they did on the stroke of ninety minutes, Leonardo Ulloa climbing above the defense to head home the goal to ferry Brighton into the Play-offs. Could there have been a more dramatic end to the season?
Turns out, there could. At the other end of the table, Birmingham City were struggling. They went into the day a point behind Doncaster Rovers but with a far superior goal difference. The minimum that needed to happen for them to stay up was a draw and hope that Doncaster lose to champions Leicester. With 15 minutes left, they were 1-0 down to Bolton but a glimmer of hope had been sent their way - Leicester had been awarded a penalty and David Nugent had stepped up and scored it. Then there was the clearly audible moment when thousands of Birmingham City fans' hearts broke. Bolton scored. 2-0. As most commentators would put it 'they now have a mountain to climb.'
At this point, I'd had enough. I left the office and walked to my car. By the time I started the ignition, Birmingham had scored. No way, was the thought that ran through my head. This would be a Harry Houdini moment. I was able to listen to the match all the way up to the 92nd minute, at which point my appointment arrived so I had to turn it off. Had he been late, or even not bothered to turn up, I would have heard Paul Caddis scoring Birmingham City's unlikely equaliser.
Admittedly, Birmingham had outplayed Bolton all game. However, this had been a pattern formed over the previous five games, which they had lost. A lack of cutting edge and incision in the final third coupled with a likelihood of shipping stupid goals.
This is the beauty of the Championship. Eight weeks ago, you would never had suspected that Birmingham would stay up on Goal Difference. You would also not have fancied Brighton to be in the Play-offs. Stranger things have happened, but this season's edition of Championship Review would be worth buying so you can enjoy the drama right from the off.
Special mention at the end for Paul Dickov whose Doncaster Rovers side was relegated to League One today. He's loved by fans up and down the country for his exploits in the sky blue of Manchester City. I'm convince he will make a great manager one day.
