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| Fri 26th April 2002. Play off preview | |
| April Headlines
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Cardiff
City, Stoke City, Brentford and Huddersfield are about to put their supporters through one
of the most turbulent periods of following their clubs. For Stoke the nightmare of another play off failure would push many of them over the edge. For Cardiff City it's been 5 years since the club was in a play off scenario, then it was to get from 3 to 2. The reward this time of a place in the 1st division makes these play offs a massive occasion. City are at Stoke on Sunday for a 2pm kick off. The return leg is at Ninian Park on Wednesday, kick off 7:45pm. There is no away goals rule so after 90 mins at Ninian Park the aggregate score will settle the match, if it's level there is 30 mins extra time followed by penalties. Huddersfield v Brentford from the McAlpine is also on Sunday and the return at Griffin Park is on Wednesday also. The referee for Stoke v Cardiff is Tony Leake, ironically he also took charge of the fixture between the clubs at the Britannia last December. NigelBlues wrote of him "The referee tonight, Tony Leake, was superb. For such a high profile game, nobody booked, few were spoken to and the game was allowed to flow - credit to both sets of players for that too. The fact you never noticed the ref apart from the brief stoppage can only mean we had a good one." At Ninian Park on Wednesday we have Mike Dean. His last City game was back in the old days when we were a third division club. Can I wish all four clubs the very best of luck and of course extra luck for Cardiff City. |
Copyright Michael Morris 2002.