Playoff Musings after the First Legs

The first leg of the CCC playoff semi’s are all said and done, both Bristol City and Hull are in the drivers seat to punch their tickets to Wembely. I thought both matches were fairly well played but the Bristol City v Crystal Palace definatelly had the drama and great goals scored. City opened up the scoring in the 53rd minute by Louis Carey who hit a stunning curling shot that gave Bristol City the lead. It was end to end football until the 87th minute when Carey gave up a penalty that Ben Watson slotted home making the tie all even. The drama was yet to come, David Noble popped up in injury time to hit a sublime 30 yarder that gave Bristol City a 2-1 edge going back to Aston Gate. The second leg will be played on May 13th.

Hull got a fortunate 2-0 win over Watford at Vicarage Road that saw the ref determine the outcome of match sadly. In the 4th minute it appeared the Watford had taken the lead but the goal was called offside, and from my vantage point it was not. That was only the start of a bad day for Watford. On 8 minutes Hull City’s Nick Barmby put the Tigers ahead. It got worse for Watford on the 23rd minute when Dean Windass put Hull up 2-0. Watford did play much better in the second half going close within the first 5 minutes but then on 61 minutes Watford’s John Ustache was given a straight red card that will rule him out of the second leg and the Playoff final if Watford advance. Now down to 10 men Watford were put on the back foot by Hull who were looking for that killer third goal. It never came but Hull take a commanding 2-0 lead into the KC Stadium on May 14th.