Key events
Football League: Forty years ago, the playoffs did not exist and fascinating archives reveal how a format that even one winning manager wanted abolished came to be.
Despite the complaints – and an initially indifferent reaction from the media – the end-of-season drama quickly took hold. In 1986-87, promoted Charlton had battled to stay in the First Division and were forced to fight for their lives again after finishing fourth-bottom.
Charlton beat Ipswich 2-1 on aggregate in the semi-final, then faced Leeds in a final that could not be separated over two legs, each winning 1-0 at home. The competition was proving popular, with crowds of about 30,000 packing Elland Road for both Leeds home games. A replay at Birmingham’s St Andrew’s followed – a playoff to decide the playoffs, if you will.
The score was level after 90 minutes and Charlton looked doomed when John Sheridan scored in extra time. But Shirtliff struck twice in four delirious minutes. It remains the only playoff final to go to a replay, after that idea was dropped.
On the journey home, the Charlton coach hurtled down the M6 until the players, starving, demanded to stop. They pulled into a service station and tucked into cheap fast food. “I’m thinking: ‘We’ve just managed to stay in the First Division and we’re all eating chips and god knows what in a services,’” Shirtliff, now 65, says, chuckling. “Every time I think about it, I think: ‘What would they be doing now?’ They’d probably be in five-star restaurants or in a hotel with their own chef cooking for them.”
Read more from Sam Cunningham below.
Europa Conference League: Crystal Palace followed Arsenal and Aston Villa to become the third English team to make a men’s European final this season. Here is Ed Aarons’ verdict from Selhurst Park.
There were ecstatic celebrations as Palace’s players completed a lap of honour in front of their adoring supporters who are still having to pinch themselves over the events of the past 12 months. Glasner may be set to leave after what will be the 60th game of a marathon season but whatever happens after this, he will always have a special place in the club’s history. One of the loudest cheers of the night came when the stadium announcer confirmed that Nottingham Forest – who controversially replaced Palace in the Europa League – had been thrashed 4-0 by Aston Villa in their semi-final.
The captain Dean Henderson, admitted that the sense of injustice has been driving the FA Cup winners. “It’s pretty incredible really to even get into a European competition with Crystal Palace, let alone reach the final,” he said. “We’ve got to deliver something special. We’ve got to get back what we deserve.”
Europa League: John McGinn has warned that the job is not done yet and that Villa are not ‘nearly men’ in Istanbul.
We didn’t want to leave these games with any regrets, and I think we’ve done ourselves massive justice. We’ve had low moments. It’s a demanding club to play for but what we’ve done in the last few years is exceptional. The margins are so slim. If we lost, we’re the nearly men.
When we go to Istanbul, we need to make sure we’re not the nearly men. I’m normally quite calm before games, but today I was nervous. Tonight was up with one of the best performances I’ve seen from a Villa team for a long time.
I wasn’t nervous in terms of the team turning up. We’ve turned up in big games, maybe just not in big semi-finals. The injuries Forest have had may have helped decide it, but we needed to capitalise – and we did. The club’s been through some massive lows, but such a massive group deserves success. Hopefully we’ll bring it.
Europa League: In the end, it was a rout, Aston Villa sailing into their first European final since 1982. There were fist pumps from Prince William high in the Trinity Road Stand after Emiliano Buendía’s penalty approaching the hour put Villa in command of the tie and then pure delirium as John McGinn buried two near-identical first-time finishes inside three minutes to kill the game.
In between serenading Unai Emery, who is hunting a record fifth Europa League title, and drinking in the celebrations, Villa supporters could think about booking flights to Istanbul, where Villa will face Freiburg in search of their first trophy since lifting the League Cup in 1996.
Villa had the “benefit of Buendía’s ice-cold mind,” wrote Will Unwin, who was at Villa Park to watch as the Argentinian kept his head as tempers raged around him.
Aston Villa settled sooner and an integral element of that was Buendía, a classy No 10 unfazed by swimming in a cauldron. He knows if he plays his own game, then good things will follow. Forest may have hoped to intimidate him but he was always eager to take the ball to feet, even with Elliot Anderson and others snapping at his heels.
Buendía encouraged the vociferous Villa fans to make more noise by throwing his arms up in the air during the first half, knowing the part they could play. It worked as the decibels grew, but creating the opener was a more successful method of testing the 129-year-old foundations. Receiving the ball on the edge of the box, Buendía weighed up his options and took the most difficult route, dazzling through two defenders before calmly slipping a pass to give Watkins the easiest of finishes.
Read the full analysis below.
Preamble
The 2025-26 season may be ticking towards its end but there is still a whole lot to be decided. Championship playoffs begin with Hull v Millwall tonight before Middlesbrough take on Southampton in tomorrow’s lunchtime kick-off. The latter may be extra spicy given Boro made a formal complaint to the EFL alleging a man they believe to be a Southampton member of staff was spying on their training session yesterday.
In the Premier League, Manchester City hope to bounce back from their draw at Everton against Brentford. Arsenal will be keen for their title rivals to slip up before they face West Ham, who are facing the drop, on Sunday. There is also Women’s FA Cup action with Liverpool taking on Brighton before Chelsea host the newly crowned WSL champions, Manchester City. Plus some big rivalries ignite with the Old Firm derby at Celtic Park and el clásico returns at Camp Nou but Barcelona will be the least of Madrid fans’ worries, with a teammate rift causing spilled blood in the dressing room. More on that later.
There was plenty to chew on last night too. Vibrant and victorious Villa demolished Nottingham Forest’s hopes of charging into the Europa League final and edging closer to ending a 30-year major trophy drought. They will face Freiburg in the final in Istanbul on 20 May.
In the Conference League, Oliver Glasner’s chances of bowing out at Crystal Palace with a second trophy in two years were substantially enhanced with a 5-2 aggregate semi-final win. The Europa League place denied them last year is now in sight, with Rayo Vallecano as their opponents in the final in Leipzig on 27 May.
So much reaction to get to, so much buildup to be across. To get you in the mood, here are our 10 Premier League things to look out for.
As always, if you have any thoughts, questions, predictions, complaints or anything else you want to share, then send them my way via email which you can find at the top of this blog. How do you expect your club to fare this weekend? And has the season gone as expected? I want to know.