A Win and A Favour on the Last Day

So - we need to beat Spurs and hope for a favour from somewhere else. We've been in a similar situation a total of seven times in the past. On three of those occasions we ended the day smiling - not a bad ratio really when you consider that two games have to go the right way. Here's those seven occasions:

Let's look at promotion battles first:

1894/95  Division Two

We've spent much of our existence as a yo-yo club, but 26 out of our first 27 seasons in the Football League were all spent in the same Division - the second. There was very little last day excitement in those years, however there was a dramatic climax to our first year in the league, the top four playing each other on the final day, with places in the play-offs (then called 'Test matches') at stake. This was the table before the game:

We needed to beat Bury and hope Newton Heath (later Man U) lost at home to Notts County. We won 1-0 but Newton Heath drew 3-3 to deny us on goal average. They lost in the Test match anyway, to Stoke (who thus stayed in Division One). Just missing out meant that Walnut Street (as the ground was then called) was free to stage the test match between Notts County and Derby County, Derby won 2-1. 

1991/92  Division Two

After blowing it the previous week with a 2-0 defeat v Charlton (at Upton Park) we now needed to better Middlesbrough's result.

Boro won 2-1 at Wolves and we couldn't beat Newcastle anyway - losing 2-1 at home to Keegan's men. We lost in the play-off final to Blackburn.

2012/13   Championship

Could we win at Forest? Would Bolton fail to beat Blackpool?

Yes and yes. But then came the play-offs.

Now here's the relegation battles:

1934/35   Division One 

The end of the first great Leicester team. To stay up, we need to win at Portsmouth and hope Middlesbrough lose at home to Chelsea.

Both games were draws so we were relegated to Division Two after 10 years in the top flight - our first ever experience of the R word.

1985/86   Division One

We had to beat Newcastle at Filbert Street and hope either Ipswich, Coventry or Oxford slipped up.

Peter Beardsley so nearly ruined it for us in the first half but his shot hit the post, and we went on to win 2-0. Ipswich lost at Sheffield Wednesday, so in our first post-Lineker season we managed to stay up. 

1986/87   Division One

The following year we couldn't pull off the same trick. We needed to better Charlton's result.

 We could only draw 0-0 at Oxford while Charlton beat QPR 2-1. That didn't actually keep Charlton up - yet. This was the first year of the modern play-offs, which were then between three sides from Division Two and the 19th place team in Division One. Charlton managed to get past Ipswich in the semis and beat Leeds in the final to retain their top flight status.

1990/91  Division Two

We were lucky that only two were relegated from Division Two that season. If we bettered West Brom's result we'd stay up.

We beat Oxford with Tony James' goal, and Albion could only draw 3-3 with ten man Bristol Rovers at Twerton Park.

I was only at one of those seven games - the second Newcastle game. 1895 and 1935 might be stretching it a bit, but was anyone at all the other five?