I was sitting indoors watching everything unfold on Wednesday, and it was an eventful night to say the least. It turns out there was no way we were going up automatically, because West Brom got the point they needed to stay ahead of us. I was glad Brentford didn’t go up, because I think we’d have a better chance against them, should we get to the Final, than we would against West Brom. In my opinion, they were slightly better than us when we played them at the Hawthorns, but when we had Brentford at the Cottage, although we lost the game I thought we were better than them. So I’ve taken a bit of spirit from that, but of course we have to get over the line against Cardiff first in the Semi-Final.
Neil Harris has done a wonderful job with Cardiff. I’ve met Neil quite a few times, and he’s a nice lad. He did a great job at Millwall on a supressed budget, and he’s got the best out of the Cardiff players. That wasn’t an easy job that he took on from Neil Warnock, and at that time I don’t think anyone would have expected them to finish the season fifth in the table.
It’s only a couple of weeks since we beat Cardiff relatively comfortably, so that will definitely work in our favour from a psychological standpoint. I can remember Neil coming to the Cottage with his Millwall teams, and they’d always sit back against us and let us have possession. It will be interesting to see how he approaches things now that it’s a higher stakes game. I’ve got a feeling he might set his team up to have more of a go at us than he usually does. He’s come unstuck with every team he’s had against us before, so don’t be surprised if he mixes it up.
The bookies have got Brentford as the favourites overall, but it's going to be an interesting one because I think conceding that late goal might have knocked the stuffing out of Brentford. I was texting [Fulham Director] Dave Daly saying I thought they might slip up against Barnsley, and that’s exactly what they ended up doing. It’s a strange one with them, because they were absolutely flying, but then lost both games when they actually got to the point where they could go second.
They say form goes out the window in the Play-Offs but, for me, the fact that we’re on a bit of a high with our form is a huge positive. The Play-Offs is all about results. You don’t worry so much about the pretty football, you do what you’ve got to do to win the game. And if that means we’ve got to be as ugly as sin, then that’s what we’ve got to do. Since lockdown there’s been a few games where that’s the case, so Scott will have been pleased to see the boys grind three points out when they’ve had to. I think Scott has done a good job to get us in this position. Yes we would have liked automatics, but to finish on 81 points in your first job as a manager is something that should be applauded.
A lot of people will be hoping for an all Welsh or all West London Final, but my prediction is that it’s going to be Fulham versus Swansea at Wembley, with Fulham to come out on top. We’ve just got to go and do the business now.