Shadota
And the year is 1889
I don't subscribe to the "curse" idea. I think it's just that we've been shite in the play offs when it's really mattered.
I'm ignoring the 1988 fixture, partly as I wasn't even alive when it happened, and partly because it was a different format to the version of the play-offs that we see now.
1997: Didn't perform in a damp squib of a match in the final, where both sides were guff, besides one instance of quality by Hopkin to drag Palace over the line.
1998: Outplayed by Sunderland in the 2nd leg of the semi final, despite having beaten them at home both in the regular season and in the first leg.
2003: Poor team selection by Warnock, coupled with a team that looked asleep in the first half. Game was gone by half time.
2009: Season thrown away by McCabe selling Beattie. Despite that, we went 2nd in the table with 4 games to go, then scored one goal in those last 4 to finish 3rd. Lost for a third time that season to Burnley. If we'd kept J Beattie, we'd surely have gone up automatically that year.
2012: The perfect example of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Thoroughly in charge of the race for 2nd, until the Ched fiasco. Then threw it away due to Wilson's plan A being infinitely better than any other tactic he had, Ched was just that good that season. Dragged ourselves to Wembley, and threw the shootout away after Huddersfield went 0 for 3.
2013: Wilson was removed far too late in the season. Should have made the change much earlier than it was. Instead it was left to Morgan to hold the fort, and we gave up in the 2nd leg vs Yeovil.
2015: The start of that 1st leg vs Swindon, we did great. Clough had set us up to stifle their biggest threats, and we were playing well when Freeman scored. But Brayford went off injured, and he was the key to our entire defensive plan. Swindon grew into it, and got their goals in the 2nd half. 2nd leg was a complete farce of a match for both sides.
2022: Seemed like we'd thrown the semi away after the 1st leg where we played awfully for the most part. 2nd leg we were superb, and dominated for the majority of the game. Some very, very poor penalties gave it away. Gibbs-White's effort is still to me, the worst penalty I've ever seen. Not because of poor technique, but because my dead grandmother could have worked out where he was putting the ball. Every stutter he did, he looked at the bottom left corner. Made the keeper's decision on where to dive absurdly easy.
If we were cursed (or rather, if curses were real, and we were the victim of one), I'd expect more instances of stuff like 2012 and 2015, where things seemed to just contrive themselves against us. Ched's legal team being so fucking awful that they lost him his case in 2012, when he was probably the best player in the league that season. And Brayford, the centrepiece of our tactical setup, succumbing to injury in 2015. Other than that, we've lost due to being not good enough.
Curses don't exist. Humans just recognise patterns, and we have an all-encompassing desire to find a reason for such patterns. When a reason doesn't exist (or we can't figure it out), we fall back on these nonsensical explanations - curses, ghosts, etc.
For a while, I didn't think I'd ever see us score at Wembley. I still vividly remember the disbelief I felt when Jose Baxter hooked the ball in vs Hull. And then the same again, when Scougall smashed home for 2-1. And I reckon I'll probably feel the same way once we actually win a play off final. But if I could be proven wrong once by that team under Clough, I have to trust that, in a play off campaign at some stage, we will finally get that win.
I'm ignoring the 1988 fixture, partly as I wasn't even alive when it happened, and partly because it was a different format to the version of the play-offs that we see now.
1997: Didn't perform in a damp squib of a match in the final, where both sides were guff, besides one instance of quality by Hopkin to drag Palace over the line.
1998: Outplayed by Sunderland in the 2nd leg of the semi final, despite having beaten them at home both in the regular season and in the first leg.
2003: Poor team selection by Warnock, coupled with a team that looked asleep in the first half. Game was gone by half time.
2009: Season thrown away by McCabe selling Beattie. Despite that, we went 2nd in the table with 4 games to go, then scored one goal in those last 4 to finish 3rd. Lost for a third time that season to Burnley. If we'd kept J Beattie, we'd surely have gone up automatically that year.
2012: The perfect example of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Thoroughly in charge of the race for 2nd, until the Ched fiasco. Then threw it away due to Wilson's plan A being infinitely better than any other tactic he had, Ched was just that good that season. Dragged ourselves to Wembley, and threw the shootout away after Huddersfield went 0 for 3.
2013: Wilson was removed far too late in the season. Should have made the change much earlier than it was. Instead it was left to Morgan to hold the fort, and we gave up in the 2nd leg vs Yeovil.
2015: The start of that 1st leg vs Swindon, we did great. Clough had set us up to stifle their biggest threats, and we were playing well when Freeman scored. But Brayford went off injured, and he was the key to our entire defensive plan. Swindon grew into it, and got their goals in the 2nd half. 2nd leg was a complete farce of a match for both sides.
2022: Seemed like we'd thrown the semi away after the 1st leg where we played awfully for the most part. 2nd leg we were superb, and dominated for the majority of the game. Some very, very poor penalties gave it away. Gibbs-White's effort is still to me, the worst penalty I've ever seen. Not because of poor technique, but because my dead grandmother could have worked out where he was putting the ball. Every stutter he did, he looked at the bottom left corner. Made the keeper's decision on where to dive absurdly easy.
If we were cursed (or rather, if curses were real, and we were the victim of one), I'd expect more instances of stuff like 2012 and 2015, where things seemed to just contrive themselves against us. Ched's legal team being so fucking awful that they lost him his case in 2012, when he was probably the best player in the league that season. And Brayford, the centrepiece of our tactical setup, succumbing to injury in 2015. Other than that, we've lost due to being not good enough.
Curses don't exist. Humans just recognise patterns, and we have an all-encompassing desire to find a reason for such patterns. When a reason doesn't exist (or we can't figure it out), we fall back on these nonsensical explanations - curses, ghosts, etc.
For a while, I didn't think I'd ever see us score at Wembley. I still vividly remember the disbelief I felt when Jose Baxter hooked the ball in vs Hull. And then the same again, when Scougall smashed home for 2-1. And I reckon I'll probably feel the same way once we actually win a play off final. But if I could be proven wrong once by that team under Clough, I have to trust that, in a play off campaign at some stage, we will finally get that win.
