Play-off relegation curse haunts West Ham, Birmingham and Blackpool (Leicester 96)

[Out Foxed]

There is a statistic that should worry three of the four sides who begin battling it out in the Championship play-offs on Thursday night – no team since Leicester City in 1995-96 have been relegated from the Premier League then promoted through the post-season lottery the following season.

West Ham United, who begin their play-off campaign in Cardiff on Thursday night, and Blackpool and Birmingham, who meet at Bloomfield Road on Friday, will have to break that 16-year statistical streak. Before this season the 45 sides relegated since 1995-96 had produced four semi-finalists and four finalists, with Sunderland, who were defeated by Charlton Athletic on penalties in the 1998 final, coming closest to conquering this peculiar curse.

Kevin Poole, now the goalkeeping coach at Burton Albion and, at the age of 48, finally retiring from playing after the Brewers face Barnet on Saturday, was in goal when Leicester defeated Crystal Palace at Wembley back in May 1996 and is at a loss to explain the failure of relegated sides since. "I really don't know why it is," he says. "The pain of relegation stays with you for a while but the previous season shouldn't be on a player's mind when you get to play-off time. Maybe it is, but it shouldn't be."

Perhaps of greater import to that Leicester side was the fact that they had been there before. The 1996 final was the Foxes' fourth in five years, with the run only broken in that relegation campaign of 1994-95. Poole was with the club for all four and feels that those experiences carried more weight than the disappointment of dropping out of the top flight.

"There were quite a few in the team that had experienced the play-offs before and I think that was a big factor, and helped us get through to the final," he says. "The semis are tough games to prepare for. Your season boils down to just those two games. So it's hard to prepare. If you're playing away first you've got to try and keep it tight, keep a clean sheet, so you've got a chance going into the second leg when you're at home."

On that score Cardiff City share more similarities with that Leicester side than any of their current rivals. The Bluebirds have been thwarted in the past two play-offs – by Blackpool in the final two years ago and last season in the semi-finals by Reading. They, then, are Poole's tentative pick for success this year, and the Crystal Palace manager, Dougie Freedman, whose side are very familiar with Malky Mackay's men having faced them four times this season in league and cup, also tipped City for success after they had secured their play-off place at Selhurst Park on Saturday.

continued.

http://www.guardian....ackpool-cardiff

[Corky]

That was such a strange season.

We started so well away from home, yet struggled virtually all season at home until the last three games.

Had a terrific away record, most goals I think.

Set us on the way to a fantastic four years.