Play-offs are not for the faint-hearted
IHAVE spent much of this week being quizzed about the play-offs, as I prepare to lead a team into the situation for a fourth time. Previously, I have reached and lost a play-off semi-final, reached and lost a play-off final and gone all the way in 2010-11 by winning promotion at Old Trafford against Torquay
So what have been my key learnings?
First, it is vital to recognise the achievement of play-off qualification but not to labour it. Too often, you see clubs that celebrate qualification as a ‘Promised Land’ moment. It is not the end of the road. It is just a new beginning. But there is confidence to be gained from getting in there. And that confidence is an important fuel to bank.
Publicity
Second, the play-offs are not just another game.When you treat them like that you miss many tricks. A multitude of issues will be different about a play-off situation and if don’t recognise that you will fail to plan in sufficient detail.
As a very small for instance, imagine being a Stevenage player; imagine training every day since last July without cameras filming you, then imagine a fleet of camera crews turning up on the Friday before your play-off semi. It is important to have dealt with the psychological aspects of a sudden burst of publicity and to be able to focus on the true job in the face of that.
Third, how do you deal with a twolegged match? I have managed five major two-legged semi-finals so far in my managerial career. In three of those, we were home in the first leg, twice we were away.
Four times we won through to the final.We won three and drew two of the home legs and we won four of the five away legs.We lost just one of the ten games and that did, in fact, cost us the tie. The way to play these semi-finals is simply to win both games. There are no deeper tactics required. Just win the game in front of you as well as you can.
We unexpectedly won an away leg at Kidderminster 5-1 which was a great help in getting to Wembley. We weren't shy of going and doing the damage we could that day.We sensed they weren't quite right so we went all in for goals.
Fourth, Cup tie football (which is what play-offs really are) IS about adventure. It IS about being brave.You have to score goals to win so you have to play goal scoring players to get through. It IS about playing on the front foot, getting out there and attacking the situation. It isn’t for the faint hearted. It IS for the brave.
Planning
And finally, there are three other teams like you who have qualified. You have to be better than each of them over a period of a fortnight or so. That is all. But being better than all of them in that period, does involve planning that needs to take place long before.
When we won the play-offs in 2011, we had begun our planning back in the March. How else could we have made sure that we secured the right hotel for the final for instance? Getting ahead, without being presumptious, is professional and essential. I learned that when Carlisle beat us at Stoke in 2005 after our planning let us down compared to theirs.
They had qualified early and were ready.We qualified on the final day and everything was a mad scramble.
I wouldn’t let myself get ahead of myself back then but I learned a big lesson in failing at the final hurdle. A five-point plan then. But things always change and you never stop learning. So never stop sharpening your saw! motion in playoffs.
None of the first leg losers are out of it. All they have to do is win the second leg well enough. In losing to Cambridge United in 2009-10, I learned that lesson. We suffered a devastating 3-0 extra time defeat having won the first leg 3-1. The pain we felt that day fired us to the League title the following year. But we learned that half time in semis gives teams a great chance to be well prepared.
My lads have done incredibly well to earn a place in this year’s ‘end zone’. So many of them were playing Non-League last year that I wasn’t sure that they could progress this far so quickly. The fact that they managed to knock out 8W, 7D, 1L in 16 to reach the play-offs show is a sign they cannot be underestimated. We lost 2-0 at Southend early on in the season and were totally outclassed.
We did turn that result around in the home game, winning 4-2. We were better that day. Not 4-2 better but we were better.
What we all know is that our opponents have some great experience, some terrific quality, and a tremendous depth.
We do have confidence in our game, though, and we do have fierce ambition to impose that game in order to succeed. The tie is a terrific prospect.
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