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On The Road: Michael Walker - Brentford play Doncaster in final day promotion clash

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It was approaching 5.45pm on Saturday in the Belle Vue bar at Doncaster Rovers’ Keepmoat Stadium: and around 200 downcast Doncaster fans switched from staring into their pints to glaring at the flat screens dotted across the walls. They were reminded that there can be agonies at the top, too.

Rarely can Hartlepool United versus Brentford have held such fascination in south Yorkshire.

But it did, and, oh, was there a roar when Hartlepool’s talented teenager Luke James put Brentford one behind.

Jubilant celebrations: Hartlepool's first goal against Brentford was met with rapturous celebrations all the way in Doncaster

BY THE WAY...

Scunthorpe bust many coupons with a win at MK Dons. It means they can stay up if they beat Swindon and Colchester lose at Carlisle. With a three-goal swing involved.

Suddenly the noise 12,000 Doncaster supporters had been unable to make during their match against Notts County was heard.

Relegated Hartlepool were doing something Rovers had failed to do against mid-table County: score.

Brentford did reply but the 1-1 draw meant that Doncaster’s afternoon was merely a disappointment as opposed to a disaster.

Having started the day top of League One, a win would have guaranteed Doncaster promotion back to the Championship they left last season.

And it is no small achievement, to bounce back — just ask Coventry City or Portsmouth.

But then Notts County, on this evidence, will be a team to watch next season. Tidy and committed, Chris Kiwomya’s new side took an early lead through Joss Labadie’s 30-yard thunderbolt and although the home players pressed relentlessly in the second half, 1-0 was how it finished.

All to play for: Doncaster needed a win to secure promotion but lost at home 1-0 to Notts County

With Bournemouth winning again — eight in a row — it meant that if Brentford won at Hartlepool, Doncaster would drop from first to third. The penultimate day of the season is no time for this to happen. Hence the staring and glaring. It would have been particularly painful given that on the final day Doncaster travel to Brentford.

Promoted: Bournemouth's 3-1 win assured their promotion

What an afternoon that promises to be.

The impossibility of both teams winning that game sealed Bournemouth’s promotion on Saturday.

Eddie Howe’s players can now capture the League One title with victory at Tranmere, a feat that would justify, if further justification is required, Howe’s decision  in October to leave Burnley in  the Championship to return to Bournemouth. The Cherries had just one win from their first 11 games when Howe went back.

So there will be a buzz at  Tranmere, who have lost five in a row to drop to 10th. 

But it will be trumped surely by that surrounding the Brentford Bees at Griffin Park.

Brentford versus Doncaster is now a winner-takes-all prize — automatic promotion.

‘It’s a 90-minute season,’ was how Doncaster manager Brian Flynn put it, a phrase that will echo around Football League grounds far beyond Griffin Park.

It is the team with the best home record in League One against the team with the best away record.

Brentford are favourites and have home advantage. They have lost just twice at Griffin Park all season, the last time in January.

They held Chelsea 2-2 in the  FA Cup.

But Doncaster will travel with advantages of their own. The most telling is that they can draw and go up. They have two ways to win, Brentford have one. Another  is that Donny away record: in  accumulating 81 points, Rovers have won 46 of them on the road, 35 at home.

Salvaged: Brentford equalised to set up a final day promotion battle between them and Doncaster for the final automatic promotion place

The brick-hard state of the pitch at the Keepmoat Stadium may help explain this. In Cotterill, Lundstram, Furman and Coppinger, Rovers have a quartet of pass-and-go midfielders. But they must expend a lot of concentration on simply controlling the ball on such a surface. It would make you prone to lumping the ball  forward to Billy Paynter.

Against a Notts County defence in which captain Dean Leacock excelled and which had 19-year-old German goalkeeper Fabian Spiess in brave and agile form, Paynter had a couple of chances, as did captain Rob Jones in the last seconds.

None went in and Flynn said: ‘A few of the players were edgy and not their usual selves.’

Showdown: Brentford will face Doncaster on the final day of the season

But Flynn defied plenty as a player and has been a figure of smooth transition at Rovers since Dean Saunders left for Wolves. Flynn also delivered the first  verbal retaliation of the week when  referring to ‘our blistering away form’.

He and Uwe Rosler will be in demand. Rosler responded to the draw at Hartlepool by saying: ‘We are where we want to be, and I now have a week to find the right plan.’ 

There has been agony, ecstasy, pain and unpredictability all  season at the top of League One. And there’s more.

  Intriguing from top to bottom

There are two games left for the vast majority of Championship teams yet only two things are guaranteed: Cardiff City’s promotion and Bristol City’s demotion.

It ensures another nail-biter of a week, beginning Tuesday when Blackburn Rovers, fresh from a  4-0 thumping at Watford on Saturday, go to Millwall. This is Rovers’ game in hand — and one of Millwall’s two — on the eight clubs around them who can also still be relegated.

Going up: Cardiff City celebrate their promotion to the Premier League

Rovers conceded all four goals in the second half at Vicarage Road. They visit Millwall having not won away in the league in 2013. After that they have Crystal Palace at home and Birmingham away. Blackburn are two points off relegation with a worsening goal difference. On it goes.

A consolation is at least they are not Wolves. After losing 2-1 to Charlton in the 90th minute, Dean Saunders said: ‘Football’s cruel, isn’t it?’

Wolves’ last two games are Burnley at home and Brighton away. Third-bottom, they will probably need to win one of those to avoid a second consecutive relegation. If not, they will be having local-ish derbies with Port Vale next season.

Tight: Blackburn visit Millwall on Tuesday night desperate for a result

But one win can change a lot, albeit temporarily. Huddersfield Town’s 3-0 win over Millwall lifted them from Wolves’ position to 19th. Town’s last two matches are against the bottom two: Bristol City away and Barnsley at home. You fear for Barnsley.

There will be enough cliches used this week to stuff a landfill site and Peterborough v Sheffield Wednesday merits a relegation six-pointer tag.

At the top it is equally curious. Champions Cardiff have drawn four of their last five, second-placed Hull have won two of their last five and Watford, in third, had won one of seven prior to Blackburn.

Six pointer: Sheffiled Wednesday face Peterborough in a key battle at the bottom of the Championship

Hull remain favourites for the second automatic promotion spot and will get it if Watford lose at Leicester on Friday. Leicester, seventh and one place outside the play-offs, play Nottingham Forest, two points off the  play-offs, in their final game.

It is dizzying and entrancing.

No wonder eight of Saturday’s 11 games attracted 17,000-plus attendances.

 Rotherham are holding all the aces

Another division where little is decided is League Two. Gillingham are up, as are Port Vale barring a mathematical extravagance. Rotherham will go up and relegate Aldershot if they beat them at home. That leaves six others in limbo at the bottom.

Holding the aces: Rotherham will go up if they beat Aldershot, relegating their opponents in the process

AFC Wimbledon must beat Fleetwood; their goal difference means a draw is not enough. Barnet’s Graham Stack saved a 90th-minute penalty against Wycombe in the last match of Underhill’s 106-year history. They are a point off the drop and Edgar Davids’ side go to Northampton, whose play-off place is secured.

But the game of the day may be at Dagenham & Redbridge. They are 21st and the visitors are York, 20th. If Wimbledon win and Barnet draw Dagenham need a point. A Dagenham win leaves York vulnerable. But wins for Wimbledon and Barnet, and a Dagenham-York draw, would carry all four above Plymouth and Torquay, if they lose.

Goal difference of one separates the Devon clubs.









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