By John Lyons
DO YOU ever hear of anyone being asked to run a 100m sprint immediately after completing a marathon? Thought not.
Then why do we effectively do that by asking clubs to take part in play-offs straight after the regular season has ended?
Is it time to take another look at this obsession with play-offs? Do we really need them?
In our Fans’ Forum over the last couple of weeks, our readers have made some excellent points. As Ken Bennett, for example, said: “What is the point of playing in a competition where you can play well all season to end up second or third only to go out to a lower-placed team on a freak result as so often seems to happen?”
The more I think about this, the more I’m in agreement. Why are we rewarding mediocrity and not excellence? Teams can lose a bundle of matches and still win promotion.
I was at the Ryman Premier play-off final between Hendon and Margate. The Greens finished ten points above Margate, but lost 1-0, admittedly with home advantage.
If it had been the top two to go up automatically, perhaps it would have been different. Perhaps Margate would have pulled out all the stops and got that second place.
Instead, they could coast into the end of the season because they knew their place in the play-offs was safe. Let’s make every game count.
People call the league a marathon and you’ll often hear managers say that luck evens itself out over the course of a season. But that’s not necessarily the case in a one-off play-off final.
Understand
Going back to Hendon v Margate, the Greens had Aaron Morgan sent off for a foul in the 18th minute (pictured). That decision was later rescinded by the FA, but it was too late for Hendon.
Their season was resting on that game. I can understand the use of play-offs more in, for example, American Football.
In that competition, the top teams in each division qualify for the play-offs and the eventual winners of the American Football Conference meet the winners of the National Football Conference in the final, the Super Bowl.
In our play-offs, the teams are meeting the same sides they’ve played against in the league all season. I’ve lived abroad in Chile and seen different play-off set-ups, but when they reverted back to the team with the highest number of points winning the league rather than artificial playoffs, it was much improved.
Some will say the play-offs keep the season alive for more teams going into the latter stages of the season and everyone knows the score before the season starts, but football thrived for long enough without play-offs.
Brave
Some will say the genie is out of the bottle and it’s too late to go back, but why not? Is someone brave enough to do it? Why in Non-League are teams slogging their guts out all year for the sake of a bolted on couple of games at the end when everyone’s knackered?
Yes, play-off games can be exciting, but it’s not always the case. It was nice to see ex-Wealdstone striker Jermaine Beckford hit a hat-trick for Preston in their 4-0 win vs Swindon. When he threw his shirt into the fans afterwards, a young kid had it disgracefully snatched from his grasp by a woman who should have known better.
This, for me, was like a side finishing second having their promotion stolen away from them by a team in fifth 20 points behind.
Agree completely with what has been said