Contrasting Emotions On Final Afternoon

Paul Cook and Chesterfield are preparing for some welcome overtime for the second season running – and Plymouth and Mike Stowell could hardly have gone closer to securing the same prize a division higher.

While The Spireites registered a last-day League Two victory at Swindon when a draw would have been good enough, the massively improved Argyle were actually poised for a remarkable play-off place with all the games into stoppage time.

Then both Stevenage and Luton scored in the minutes added on in their matches and Plymouth were left in a final eighth place – still an amazing outcome given that they were bottom of the table in December.

Saturday’s 3-2 success at relegated Northampton, from 2-0 down, was their 12th away win in five and a half months and is all the more astounding given that Stowell opened up to us in January about the challenging travelling issues that confront a club in the distant south-west.

The record-breaking former Molineux keeper had more disappointment yesterday when Plymouth Women – the club for whom his daughter, Ella, currently plays on a dual registration – were beaten 1-0 by Wolves in their promotion play-off final. Mike and wife Rachel were part of the sizeable attendance at Burton. 

Ella was an unused substitute in the game that ended Wolves’ substantial wait for place in WSL2 and which took place not far from where Cook has worked his magic across across two spells.

His Chesterfield side have bobbed in and out of the play-off places in the basement division without seriously challenging for automatic promotion this time and will be hoping for something much better than when they were beaten over two legs by Walsall at the same stage last spring.

The other ex-Wolves favourite on whose fortunes we were keeping a close eye on the last day of the regular EFL season was Keith Downing.

Derby, managed by his long-time boss, John Eustace, were outsiders for a top-six place as they prepared to take on Sheffield United but put themselves into much stronger contention by taking an early lead.

Arch-rivals Hull and Wrexham were both trailing at the same time but the scales flipped in all three of those games to leave the defeated Rams in eighth – still a major improvement after they stayed up last year only on the last day.

The big story on the final Championship afternoon was Ipswich’s joy at securing the second promotion place behind Coventry.

And, having hoped in recent weeks that Mark Venus might be at Molineux on Saturday for the clash between two of his former clubs, we were interested to hear that the TV cameras had picked him out in the crowd at a cock-a-hoop Portman Road.

“Got the result they needed….great to have Premier League football in the area again,” he said in a text exchange. “Unfortunately they won’t play Wolves next season.”

‘Veno’, a prominent figure in the Legends area of this site like his former team-mates Stowell, Cook and Downing, has Ipswich and Colchester as his local clubs these days.