Tag: Swansea City

Which Side Will Prevail in this Year’s Championship Play-Offs?

After the 2020/21 Championship campaign was wrapped up on Saturday, all focus will now be on the four sides who will battle it out for promotion in the play-offs at Wembley.

Brentford:

The Bees missed out on automatic promotion yet again, finishing just four points off Watford in second. Another impressive season for all at Brentford, especially for top scorer, Ivan Toney, who finished on 31 goals, making him the record goal scorer in a single Championship season.

There is no doubt that several clubs, especially those in the Premier League will have their eyes on a transfer for Toney, but he will certainly be focusing on getting his current side into the topflight for the first time.

Brentford outscored the rest of the league this season, scoring 79 goals and finished on the second highest goal difference, behind champions Norwich.

Their goal threat is clear but the same can’t be said for their defence after conceding 42 goals throughout the campaign.

Manager, Thomas Frank, who also led his side to a League Cup semi-final, will look to continue their 12-game unbeaten streak against Bournemouth in their two legs on the 17th and 22nd of May.

Swansea:

The Swans made up for just missing out on the play-offs in the previous year with a terrific fourth placed finish. The South Wales club finished on 80 points, with 23 wins and 56 goals scored.

Star-man, Andre Ayew, lived up to the title yet again, netting 16 times for his side, making him the club’s top scorer, with new signing, Jamal Lowe, close behind with 14.

Another player who stood out for Swansea this season was Wales full-back, Connor Roberts, who in his 48 appearances this season found the back of the net five times, also finding seven assists from right-back.

They remained towards the top end of the table throughout the duration of the season and will hope that they can get the better of Barnsley in their play-off semi-finals, despite just one win in their last five.

Their manager, Steve Cooper, said after their final day defeat to Watford:

“Going into these play-offs, we should fear nothing and go for it.”

In Swansea’s previous league games against Barnsley, they managed to get the best of them on both occasions, winning 2-0 home and away.

Barnsley:

Arguably the most surprising to reach the Championship play-offs this season is Barnsley. A draw against champions, Norwich and a defeat for Bournemouth against Stoke meant the Tykes finished in 5th position.

Their first time finishing in a Championship play-off place and rightly so. 23 wins, 58 goals scored and some big results in a difficult season for everyone this year.

Cauley Woodrow finished on 14 goals this season for Barnsley, making it another impressive season for the 26-year-old. Another man to make a statement since joining in February was Daryl Dike who initially joined on loan from MLS side, Orlando City.

“I really hope we can now get a big reward in the play-offs because, when you believe in something, you can achieve some great results”, said manager, Valerien Ismael, after his side’s final game.

Barnsley’s biggest weakness is their rocky defence who conceded a hefty 50 goals. The Tykes take on Swansea at Wembley on the 17th and 22nd also.

Bournemouth:

The side no one is shocked to see in a play-off place. Some may be shocked to see that the Cherries finished 6th and not higher but manager Jonathan Woodgate got the job done despite a difficult finish.

After Eddie Howe’s departure after their relegation from the Premier League, Bournemouth fans hoped for a quick return and after experiencing 13 loses in their return to the Championship, a play-off place should satisfy them.

The Cherries managed to keep a hold of most of their players despite relegation and they made the clear difference. Joint-top goal scorer, Dominic Solanke who netted 15 times, along with teammate, Arnaut Danjuma Groeneveld.

There’s no doubting Bournemouth’s quality but after their final day loss to Stoke, a sixth placed finish means they will play high scoring Brentford at Wembley.

73 goals this season means we could be in for a memorable play-off semi-final. The league meetings this season saw Brentford do the double over Bournemouth, making them the favourites in this tie.

Which teams will make it into the final at Wembley and which side will win the star prize of Premier League football?

Reviewing Cardiff City’s Season

Cardiff City finished the Championship season with a 1-1 home draw with relegated Rotherham United, meaning they finished the campaign in 8th place.

The Bluebirds finished on 68 points, nine points behind the play-off places. Despite missing out on a top six finish, there are several positives to be taken away from a long Championship season.

The most obvious positive from the 2020/21 season is City’s top scorer and player of the season, Kieffer Moore. The Welshman finished the season with 20 league goals and is the first person to reach this landmark since Peter Whittingham 11 years ago.

The striker arrived at the start of the season for just £2million and has been a revelation in his first season for the club.

The other new faces at the club, Perry Ng, Dillon Phillips, along with Liverpool loanees, Harry Wilson and Sheyi Ojo, also had an impressive season with the Blues.

Wilson will go back to Liverpool with 7 goals and 11 assists. Most notably a hat-trick just last week against Birmingham.

Towards the end of January, Cardiff found themselves on a run of six consecutive defeats, meaning they were sat in 15th place, a mere three points away from the relegation zone.

From this point, the board decided to sack manager, Neil Harris. Harris helped City finish in a play-off place in the previous campaign but his results in the first half of this season meant he would not continue with the club.

Soon after, former Wolves and Republic of Ireland boss, Mick McCarthy was named first team coach until the end of the season.

It took 12 games for McCarthy to experience his first loss as Cardiff manager. Which included an impressive six game win streak. It was he, who got fans believing a play-off place was still possible.

In December Cardiff lost 2-0 to South Wales rivals, Swansea before getting their revenge in March when they held on to get a well-fought 1-0 victory at the Liberty Stadium.

Cardiff players celebrating Aden Flint’s winning goal against Swansea.

City’s biggest defeat this season came late on in the season against, now relegated, Sheffield Wednesday in a 5-0 defeat away.

It was publicly announced in January that Bluebirds defender and fan-favourite, Sol Bamba, has been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and was already undergoing treatment.

Bamba made a late appearance in City’s final game of the season against Rotherham.

After the game, manager Mick McCarthy said: “It is always our intention to finish as high as we possibly can”.

“I’m a bit miffed, I thought we could have had more points with some of them draws, but then you could probably look across games and see we got a win when we shouldn’t have done,” McCarthy added.

McCarthy is expected to have a big player haul this summer with six players out of contract. He has also said we will find out soon who will be staying and who will be going.

Can McCarthy get Cardiff a play-off place next season?

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