Managerial mayhem
If you think you’ve seen your club’s manager animated just wait until you’ve seen them staring down the face of victory or defeat in a play-off match. The fiery characters we’ve seen in the encounters, including Billy Davies, Lee Clark, Ian Holloway, Gary Johnson and so on, provide entertainment of their own on the touchline. Heading every ball and passing every pass, they know the pressure and importance of the play-offs, they know how much each decision, each attack, each block, each save means. The manager becomes almost a focal point of the ‘We are going up’ celebrations with fans overwhelmingly thankful for the sheer joy of a victorious visit to Wembley and ultimately promotion. After his success with West Ham in 2012 Sam Allardyce stated that winning the play-offs had been one of the best feelings of his career and that it was clear what it meant to the fans. In a 2011 Championship play-off semi-final Brendan Rodgers sprinted from his technical area punching the air following Darren Pratley’s goal that secured Swansea’s trip to Wembley. Once making it to the final a whole season’s hard work comes down to 90 minutes, enough to send any manager bonkers on the touchline.
