All Yorkshire affair in play-off final
Hull City, as expected, tonight joined Sheffield Wednesday in this season’s Championship play-off final but it proved to be a more difficult night than they could have expected against Derby County.
Derby, who went top of the league on Boxing Day and nine points clear of us, had a more difficult second half to the season than any of the other top six clubs, picking up only 31 points. During this time they sacked head coach Paul Clement for not doing it the Derby way with owner Mel Morris claiming that priority wasn’t the priority this season.
But suddenly a run of four successive wins, starting with a 4-0 hammering of tonight’s opponents Hull, ensured their place in the play-offs but all seemed lost when they were beaten 3-0 at home in the first leg three days ago.
Tonight, though, they gave Hull a far more difficult night than they might have imagined. Johnny Russell gave them the lead in the opening minutes and when Andrew Robertson scored an own goal nine minutes before half time it looked as though they could do the impossible and go on and get the goals needed.
It didn’t happen to be honest. In a largely uninspiring second half they didn’t really threaten the Hull goal anything like as much as they needed to and so, despite winning the game 2-0, will now face another season in the Championship.
Hull meanwhile will now head to Wembley just as they did eight years ago when a Dean Windass goal was enough to beat Bristol City and take them into the Premier League for the first ever time.
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