Wembley Way: fans approaching the stadium

Image: © Christopher Hilton Taken: 20 May 2017

Fans walk up Wembley Way for the League One playoff final between Bradford City and Millwall. The City fans, in claret and gold, are on the left of the walkway and the Millwall fans, mostly in blue, on the right; nearer to kickoff, as numbers increased, a line of police appeared in order to enforce this division. On either side of the walkway development of the stadium area continues with new building. On the left, the new Wembley Library that was constructed as part of this redevelopment. At this time League One was the name given to the third tier of English football. The promotion format sent the top two teams up automatically and put the next four teams into a mini-tournament featuring two semi-finals and then a Wembley final. This increased drama and increased the number of teams with a stake in the last games of the season, but could lead to results like this day's, when Scunthorpe and Fleetwood, who finished third and fourth, were already eliminated, and Bradford who finished fifth lost to the sixth-placed Millwall. Millwall had ended the season with 73 points, nine behind both Scunthorpe and Fleetwood. Those who devised the format, of course, would probably say that the possibility of such things happening is a powerful incentive to finish second or first rather than third, and reduces the chances of teams already promoted simply playing out the string in their final matches.

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