Boothy: History can repeat

TOWN legend Andy Booth is hoping play-off history repeats itself this evening as the club get set to face Sheffield Wednesday.

At stake is a place in the final at Wembley and the ultimate prize of a place in the top flight for the first time in 45 years.

And the situation marks an uncanny resemblance to Town’s 1994/95 play-off campaign when Neil Warnock led the club to Division Two success.

It’s exactly 22 years to the day since the club beat Brentford FC in their second-leg clash away at Griffin Park. Similar to the Class of 2017, Town made the trip to West London with the contest all square from the home leg before winning 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

Booth remembers it fondly, describing it as the most memorable game he ever played.

“The first leg, to be fair, if we lost 3-1 we couldn’t have complained they played really well but missed a couple of great chances,” he said.

“We were quite pleased with the draw but knew going down to Brentford was going to be tough.

“No-one really gave us a chance, they had finished the season really well and were the form team, while we had struggled before the playoffs. When they went a goal up we could have thought that was it.

“But we had a lot of strong characters in that side and I managed to level the game before half-time. After that it was end-to-end, tackles flying in, keepers making saves and chances – it just had everything before it went to penalties.

“To get to Wembley was brilliant and once we got there we just knew we were going to win it.”