When Bristol City blunted Blades in play-offs

BBC News

05-05-2025

Bristol City's 10th successive season in the second tier of English football saw them make the play-offs with a points total that in most seasons would only have merited around a ninth or 10th-placed finish.Promotion through the play-offs is something that has eluded City in the five times they have participated - but that record is nothing compared to their semi-final opponents, Sheffield United, who have failed no fewer than nine times.The play-offs have provided a finale to the Football League season since 1986-87.City participated the following season when the format did not include a trip to Wembley but a two-legged final played home and away.The team that finished third from bottom in the higher division played off against the fifth-placed team in the lower. City were that fifth-placed team in what is now League One and Sheffield United had finished third from bottom in what is now the Championship.I saw both games, with the first leg held at Ashton Gate on a Sunday afternoon with a 6pm kick-off. An Alan Walsh goal gave City a slender advantage to take to Bramall Lane, which proved to be enough as the Blades could only equalise an early goal from Carl Shutt, and City went through to play Walsall in the final.City trailed Walsall 3-1 after the first leg at Ashton Gate so it looked like the Saddlers would emerge victorious. Goals from Rob Newman and Shutt drew City level on aggregate. There then followed a penalty shootout, not to decide who would get promotion but which club would host the deciding game. City lost, and so, just 48 hours later, we made the journey back up the M5 with hopes restored to a degree. It was a day to forget. City found themselves three goals down after just 20 minutes and eventually lost the game 4-0, with Walsall's David Kelly, who had a habit of scoring against us in the 1980s, grabbing a hat-trick.City's other play-off experiences were a semi-final exit against Brentford in 1996-97, similar against Cardiff in 2002-03, a final defeat played in Cardiff against Brighton in 2003-04 and a loss to Hull at Wembley in 2007-08.You can hear more from David Pottier on the fans' podcast Forever Bristol City, external.