Championship Play-off Final Result 22nd May

Blackpool 3-2 Cardiff City
Congratulations to Blackpool, who beat favourites Cardiff City to win a place in the Premier League next season. It’s an incredible achievement for a club with such a small budget – especially one who was one of the favourites to get relegated. (I imagine they’ll be the favourites to get relegated next year but the favourites don’t always go down. Blackpool have already proved that.
Ian Holloway is most famous for his brilliant one-liners (although maybe that’s the wrong word, some of his jokes are a whole paragraph) but he’s also shown this season that he’s a great manager. He’s not only got a team who keep winning (especially against Nottingham Forest), they play attractive attacking football. Olly has also had a great impact psychologically. The Blackpool players don’t care if they go a goal down, they just keep fighting. Not to mention their wonderful team spirit.
I’m looking forward to seeing them next season. I’m sure they’ll spring a few shocks, and both the team and their manager will really brighten up Match of the Day – which is already brilliant, it’s my favourite programme.
David Vaughan was the only player to feature for the winning side and would probably have scored without a Cardiff handball. Rob Edwards was on the bench with Neal Eardley and Daniel Nardiello not in the squad. David was one of Blackpool’s best players and came very close to scoring for them.
Joe Ledley played the full match for Cardiff and scored the goal which put Cardiff 2-1 ahead. Unfortunately, this is expected to be his last game for Cardiff. He (understandably) wants Premier League football but he’s done well for the club all season and didn’t stop trying until the final whistle.
Darcy Blake also got the ball in the net for Cardiff but it was ruled out for offside. He had one bad moment (what footballer doesn’t have those?) which led to one of Blackpool’s goals but otherwise he played well and was a big attacking threat for Cardiff. Aaron Wildig was on the bench but there was no sign of Adam Matthews. Aaron Morris and Jonathan Meades weren’t there either.