Why the play-offs are key to English football...

Play-offs might not be the fairest way of deciding promotion but they are absolutely vital to English football. 

The pressure, drama and unpredictability of the end-of-season showdowns are now sewn into the fabric of the game - so much so that the lower leagues would struggle to survive without them.

Sheffield Wednesday finished sixth in the Championship to earn today's unexpected shot at the Premier League big-time.

Now, having shocked third-place Brighton over two legs, a win against Hull at Wembley would end the Hillsborough club’s 16-year top-flight absence. 

But Chris Hughton's Seagulls will no doubt feel short-changed that, despite finishing one place outside the automatic spots, they have to sit and watch as teams who finished below them battle it out at Wembley.

In fact, none of this season's best-placed play-off sides have made their respective finals.

League One Walsall crashed out 6-1 to Barnsley across two legs - having finished 10 points in front of them.

Accrington were the same number of points ahead of Wimbledon in League Two but still got turned over by them.

The football purists will tell you it undermines the league system and that since they arrived in 1987, teams have not got the deserved reward for their work over a gruelling nine-month campaign. 

So what's the solution, scrap the play-offs and just provide an extra automatic promotion slot? 

That would certainly be fair but it would also kill the game as we know it. 

Gone would be the spectacle of the Wembley finals. 

Gone would be the pre-season feeling that literally any one of 24 teams might just sneak into a crack at the big time.

Gone would be a post-season extravaganza that allows the lower leagues all the limelight without the distraction of the Premier League. 

And gone would be the massive global audiences to whom the knockout climax is the perfect tonic for their end-of-term football withdrawal.

The Championship final is now billed as the richest game in football - currently worth up to about £170m and broadcast to 131 countries worldwide.

The drama of the play-offs gives the Football league an edge that even the Premier League cannot rival. 

It always goes down the the last game and it is usually a matter of make or break for both teams - or at least their bosses and current squads.

Without the play-offs, global interest in the lower leagues would fall and smaller clubs would slip entirely off the overseas radar. 

That would lead to a lack of interest from the big broadcasters and a crushing decrease in TV revenue which, for some clubs, is the only thing keeping them afloat. 

It would also affect the back end of the season - as mid-table teams that are off the promotion pace would have nothing to fight for. 

That would mean no more last-ditch play-off charges for teams who manage to get it together after Christmas - and would leave weeks and weeks of dead rubbers for many clubs come March and April.

Some fans never get to see their club at Wembley, that number would rise painfully without the play-offs.

But most the important thing to remember is that this is sport.  And its chief role is entertainment. 

English football’s play-offs are thankfully not as all-encompassing as in rugby union or Super League, where the fourth-placed side can literally be crowned champion.

But the shocks, the big stories, the unexpected winners and the devastatingly fine margins between glory and failure are still the game's beating heart.

Every winner can be knocked off their pedestal, every loser can bounce back.

The play-offs allow every player, manager, owner and fan - no matter how small the club - the ability to dream of bigger and better.

That can only be a good thing.

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How Tony Pulis had Spurs pegged from the start

Tony Pulis knew how to get to Tottenham right from the off. And it wasn't by winding up Dele Alli, doubling up on Harry Kane or by putting 11 men behind the ball.

We all knew West Brom would come to frustrate us and we all knew how good they are at it.

But the first victim of their stifling strategy was not Mousa Dembele's driving runs from deep midfield, nor Danny Rose's link-up with Erik Lamela – and it was not Kyle Walker bombing on down the right.

It was the fans.

White Hart Lane kicked off the evening in good spirits but West Brom set their stall out early.

They took far too long over every throw-in, goal kick and free-kick, letting a few more seconds tick down whenever the occasion arose and pushing the ref to, but never beyond, the limit.

Credit to our players, they weren't fooled and our slick passing game opened up the Baggies time after time. 

Christian Eriksen was agonisingly close with two free-kicks - either side of Kane's effort that Boaz Myhill somehow pushed onto the post. 

But the home support was starting to play into Albion's hands. Huffing and puffing, booing and jeering every carefully crafted stoppage or set-piece delay that Pulis' side was getting away with. 

The Spurs faithful were not directly criticising their own but, once the agitation was flowing, you could see it start to affect the side. 

Spurs players already had every reason to be a bit nervy - Leicester's 4-0 win over Swansea on Sunday meant this was basically win or bust.

With that in mind, a bit of calm from the terraces would not have gone unappreciated. Especially seeing as this side have risen to the task and proven themselves again and again.

Timewasting tactics are schoolyard stuff but Pochettino's blue n white army of followers fell for it - hook, line and absolute stinker. 

We all ask players like Alli to keep their heads in the face of such situations then we all lose ours at the first sign of bother - effing and jeffing with an irrational fear that, somehow, the Baggies might be able to waste the whole game away before we got our noses in front.

When Craig Dawson diverted Eriksen’s free-kick into his own net just after the half hour the damage may already have been done. 

The reaction was that of relief rather than elation and the lads went in at half-time to muted applause rather than all-out encouragement.

Prior to this we had conceded one goal in four games. A 1-0 win would have done just fine. There was no real reason to believe that West Brom should be able to seriously trouble us at the back.

Still we worried, fretted and bit our nails and the lads came out for the second half a shell of the team we have known in recent weeks. 

Apart from a few shining lights in Toby Alderweireld and Dembele, the nerves were taking hold and the tension was rising in the stands - until eventually Dawson got the equaliser we had all been fearing since his own goal at the other end.

It was job done for Pulis and probably job done for Leicester. 

But devastating? Gut-wrenching? Miserable? Not at all. And we certainly did not bottle it.

At the end of January, 12 games ago, we were fourth – five points behind Arsenal who were top of the pile. 

Anyone who thinks we bottled it has an admirable sense of ambition - but no sense of perspective.

Going forward we will no doubt all look for progression from this young team that has showed so much promise. We will all hope they can use this season as a platform and learn from the experience.

Next season we will look for them to demonstrate the composure of title challengers, rather than title hopefuls.

And really, as fans, we should be looking to do the same.