A year ago all the drama at the end of the season circulated around Manchester and City's two dramatic injury time goals against QPR to take the title in amazing style and never to be forgotten.
Despite all the possibilities, this seasons Premier League ended on quite a damp squib. United had sealed the title a few weeks earlier and even at the bottom of the table despite half the division in apparent relegation trouble - the bottom three places were all confirmed before the final Sunday set of matches. All that left us with was the "exciting" battle for the fourth Championship League spot (yawn) and with Arsenal victorious at Newcastle, it left Spurs powerless. No, the real drama this season happened in the divisions below. First of all, a sensational ending at the game at Griffin Park between Brentford and Doncaster Rovers. Brentford needed to win to go up and with the scores level at 0-0 - the two sides were deep into injury time when Brentford were awarded a penalty. If it were to be converted then it would leave the final league table looking like this....
As you can see - Bournemouth would have been champions, Brentford would also have gone up with them as runners-up with Doncaster Rovers forced into the lottery of the play-offs. Not only did Brentford miss the penalty but for Doncaster to then go up the other end and score was simply amazing! A draw was good enough to send Rovers up but to then score to them from the play-offs to winning the title in one minute was truly unbelievable.
Who knows if something like this will ever happen again! Here is how the final table actually did look.
Then amazingly, just a couple of weeks later in the Championship play-off match between Watford and Leicester City, virtually deja vu with the same dramatic events unfolding again! In the the second leg of the semi-final with the score at 2-1 to Watford on the day and 2-2 on aggregate (away goals not counting double) the game was set for extra time. But once again - deep, deep into added time...
Sky reporter Johnny Phillips found it hard to keep his composure!
Although both Watford and Brentford would ultimately fail in their promotion bids (both losing at Wembley in the play-off finals), their fans should all relish the season that they have actually had. It will take a while to sink in as there will be many pondering "what if". Watford fans should remember that it might be a little bit of a godsend with the transfer embargo levied against them for the start of the next season which could have proven to be absolutely disastrous especially if they had have been promoted. For Brentford, I still question why a loanee was allowed to take the most important kick of the season particularly with the regular penalty taker on the pitch at the time.
Doncaster Rovers season turned around in a blink of an eye as they went from play-off entrants to league champions in an instant (and also denying Bournemouth the title at the same time). Watford fans (especially the ones present for the home game against Leicester) should try to put the disappointment of the Palace game to one side and remember the moment as shown in the video below - these moments are rare and the amazing excitement that they create are far and few between. Chris Kamara often uses the word "Unbelievable" which in a way devalues its true meaning. In these instances - both were truly unbelievable and similar - and both happened at the end of the same season! Both of these clips sum up for me what real football is all about and even though I have no affinity with either Watford or Doncaster - I feel hyper-ventilating moments coming on when I watch these clips - thanks again Johnny Phillips for the "assist". Comments are closed.
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