Imagine your whole 42 game season coming down to a playoff semi final and or final, something which plenty of football fans up and down the country, do not need to imagine.
Down in the depths of the English football pyramid, a debate has raged on whether the amount of automatic promotion spots from certain leagues need increasing. In the Isthmian Premier Division, only one team goes up automatically by winning the league. Horsham topped the table this year, winning a three-way battle for the title, pipping Billericay and Dartford on the final day. Billericay ended up 2nd by one goal and actually lost more games than eventual League winners Horsham.
This meant the dreaded playoff, with a home semi final at fifth placed Dover, with Dartford taking on Cray Valley Paper Mills. What happened in the playoffs, not many would’ve predicted.
A sparkling Alfie Matthews double for Dover, saw them beat Billericay to set up a final showdown with Dartford, and it ended up being the fifth placed side going on to win promotion back to the National League South… the playoffs, eh!
Billericay, as I say, finished second but it is the latest blot on a trending graph that actually suggests that finishing second in the Isthmian Premier Division, is not actually a good thing.
Football fans know, form goes out the window in the playoffs, everybody knows that, but logically and statistically, you can finish twenty points higher than a fellow team in the playoffs, and still not get promoted.
In fact, in 2023/2024, second placed Chatham Town lost in the playoff final to third placed Enfield, and it happened the season before that, and a few before then.
In fact, you have to go back to the 2017/2018 season, when a second placed side in Dulwich Hamlet got promoted.
For next season, you can already put Billericay and Dartford back in the playoff picture, with relegated Aveley, Welling and St Albans in the mix too, but one thing is for sure, the psychological thing of finishing second in a congested, tough league might well be in the back of peoples mind.
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