A veteran of three play-off campaigns, Neill Collins is no stranger to the pressures a player faces when promotion is on the line. The former Wolverhampton Wanderers and Sheffied United defender lost out on every occassion, including in a dramatic penalty shoot-out in the 2012 League One final.
But his first experience was in 2007 in his first season with Wolves as he helped the Black Country outfit to a fifth place finish in the Championship to set up a play-off semi-final with fierce rivals West Bromwich Albion. Both sides had finished ten points outside the automatic promotion places, and it promised to be a thrilling encounter in the first leg at the Molineux.
"It was amazing - the atmosphere in both of the games was phenomenal," recalled Collins. "You don't often get a derby in play-off games; I can't think off the top of my head of too many where you end up with such a big rivalry. In the first leg, we actually played really, really well and we should have at minimum drawn the game, if not won it.
"Dean Kiely had an excellent game for them and we lost a couple of bad goals, but I'll always remember that we lost Matt Murray the day before the game to a shoulder injury and he'd been our player of the season - he was actually named in the Championship Team of the Year. So to lose him was just a hammer blow. As much as Wayne Hennessey came in and did really well, you just can't afford to
lose a player of that magnitude at that stage of the play-offs; it's just too big an impact. Even psychologically for West Brom that would have been a huge boost.
"In terms of our performance, it was an opportunity missed. We played really well, we gave a great account of ourselves but we didn't take the game to the Hawthorns at least level. They were a great side; they were full of internationals, full of experienced players and young, up and coming players who were really hungry. We had players like Michael Kightly, who was excellent, Andy Keogh, Stephen
Ward, Karl Henry and myself who were young at the time.
"But they had Kevin Phillips, Zoltan Gera, Diomansy Kamara, Paul Robinson and Jonathan Greening - they were top, top Championship players and they were always going to be a tough side to play against over the two legs. They actually lost the final, but they romped the league the following season, which was not a surprise. But we gave it our best shot and I think the Wolves fans respected that."
Phillips had given the Baggies the lead midway through the first half, but Jody Craddock equalised on the stroke of half-time to set up a tense second half. Seyi Olofinjana put Wolves ahead just seven minutes after the restart, but the hosts were unable to keep hold of their advantage as Phillips escaped his marker at a corner to level the scores moments later.
Kamara scored West Brom's third to send Tony Mowbray's side back to the Hawthorns with the narrowest of margins, but Collins believes it was Phillips' second goal that swung the tie in the Baggies' favour.
"It was huge," admitted Collins. "I remember, it was a corner and Kevin Phillips got a header at the back post and, as great a goalscorer as he was, he wasn't renowned for scoring headers from corners. So that was kind of like a freebie for them - we gave them a sniff, and that team could score from anything. Not to hold the lead for longer was huge.
"I remember the following leg at the Hawthorns and we never got any breaks. Sam Sodje made a dreadful mistake and ended up clearing it off the line and we just couldn't get that goal to give ourselves something to chase, we just never quite managed to get in that position in the whole tie."
After spells at Preston North End and Leeds United, Collins signed for Sheffield United, where he linked up with Micky Adams in January 2011. The Blades were relegated to League One, and appointed Danny Wilson as manager in a bid to steer the club back to the Championship at the first attempt.
A run of three games without a win at the end of the season saw United lose out on automatic promotion to city rivals Sheffield Wednesday, despite finishing the campaign with 90 points - a haul that would be enough to secure a place in the top two in virtually every season.
"It was a tough one," admitted Collins. "I think we knew in the second to last game of the season that it was going to be difficult because we were relying on Sheffield Wednesday dropping points. It wasn't like we blew it on the last day - that would have been really tough. So we had a bit more time to get our head around the fact that we would be in the play-offs.
"Danny Wilson was the manager, he was excellent in terms of regrouping the squad. We'd lost Ched Evans and a couple of other strikers, so we weren't in a good frame of mind but we had a good group of players, so it wasn't too bad; we weren't fragile. We went in really positively. We played against Stevenage, and we actually played them on the second to last game of the season and drew 2-2 at Bramall Lane - we battered them, but they scored two really innocuous deflected goals and how we never beat them I'll never know, so I think on the basis of that it gave us a lot of confidence."
The Blades finished 17 points higher than Stevenage in the regulation season, and a cagey affair was eventually settled by a solitary Chris Porter goal five minutes from time in the second leg as Wilson's side set up a play-off final with Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield Town.
With the score at 0-0 after extra time, the match went to penalties and will forever be remembered as one of the most enthralling shoot outs in play-off history. Collins was the only successful scorer of the first six penalties as each side continued to buckle under the pressure.
"To be perfectly honest, they'd missed their first two penalties and we'd missed our first, so on that basis I was pretty confident," continued Collins. "I was nervous, of course, I was thinking about what I was going to do, what the goalkeeper was going to do; all of these thoughts were going through my head. But I'd taken a few penalties before and I was positive in my mind.
"I think if the other three had scored, I'd have been a bit more nervous, and that's probably quite a selfish thing but you're out there on your own taking a penalty, so that almost took the pressure off. You can't really explain how it feels in that environment - a play-off final, a penalty. But it was the strangest penalty shoot-out I've ever been involved in.
"I went from thinking we were going to win until we missed the next two penalties. I don't know why, but I just didn't feel like we were ever going to win. They were taking their penalties first and kept scoring, so the pressure was always on us. It obviously went down to the goalkeepers and I started thinking that I might have to take another one because I knew I was second, so I was only one more
taker away from having to go again - that had come into my mind as well."
It was Alex Smithies who proved to be the hero for the Terriers as he rifled his penalty past Steve Simonsen, who then blazed his spot kick into the Huddersfield fans behind the goal to condemn Sheffield United to another season in League One.
That was the fourth time the Blades had lost in a play-off final - having failed to reach the Premier League in 1997, 2003 and 2009 - and sixth time they had come unstuck in their end of season promotion bid. With history seemingly against them, the Sheffield United faithful were naturally uneasy ahead of the game.
PLAY-OFFS AT 30
Former Wolverhampton Wanderers and Sheffield United defender Neill Collins reflects on his play-off experience
Article posted: 29 May 2017
PLAY-OFFS AT 30
Celebrating 30 years of unbridled joy and inconsolable agony, a countdown of the greatest play-off matches: 10-6
18 May 2017
PLAY-OFFS AT 30
Celebrating 30 years of unbridled joy and inconsolable agony, a countdown of the greatest play-off matches: 5-1
28 May 2017
Kevin Phillips rifles
home one of three goals
A fiercely contested
Black Country derby
Tackles fly in as both
teams bid to reach Wembley
Alex Smithies converts what proves
to be the winning penalty
Steve Simonsen despairs
after missing from the spot
Huddersfield Town
Championship bound
"To be honest, the Sheffield United fans detest the play-offs, and understandably so - they've not got a great experience of them, so I think they were very wary going into the final," said Collins. "It wasn't like some teams where you can imagine the fans getting really pumped up for it, our fans came and supported us and got behind us but there was definitely a bit of trepedation for them. I think in
the following two or three seasons they missed out in the play-offs again, so they weren't big fans of it.
"That final was the worst feeling I've had in football. We'd given everything; I think fate had conspired against us. We'd still managed to get ourselves in a good position and given ourselves the best possible chance but nothing went for us, it was so cruel. To have played all those games and still be in League One was soul destroying. It takes a long time to get over it; there's nothing you can really
do, you just have to come back and get one with it."
The following season, Sheffield United finished fifth in League One and went up against Yeovil Town in the semi-final. Callum McFadzean scored the only goal in the first leg at Bramall Lane to put the Blades in pole position heading into the return leg at Huish Park.
But an early Kevin Dawson goal levelled the tie on aggregate before Ed Upson's late winner sent the Glovers to Wembley, where they overcame Brentford 2-1 to reach the Championship for the first time in the club's history.
"The way we played in the home leg, I feel we should have won by more," recalled Collins. "We didn't, and 1-0 was always precarious. We had a fantastic defensive record that season - 21 clean sheets, a club record. So we wanted to keep it tight, but we made the cardinal sin of conceding an early goal from an individual mistake and it was always an uphill struggle from there. We played the first half really well, but we hit the bar and created numerous chances and just didn't score. Once they got the second we were spent. We couldn't respond."
That was Collins' last appearance in the play-offs, although the Blades went onto reach the League One play-offs again in 2015 where they were involved in one of the greatest ever encounters with Swindon Town.
Nathan Byrne's late winner at Bramall Lane had given the Robins a narrow advantage heading back to the County Ground, where both sides played out an enthralling spectacle as they shared ten goals in a breathless second leg. Jonathan Obika's goal appeared to have sealed victory for the hosts as he made it 5-3 on the night (7-4 on aggregate) with five minutes remaining. The Blades hit back through
Matty Done and Che Adams to set up a tense finale with an additional seven minutes added on by referee Keith Hill, but were unable to find an all important sixth goal as Swindon held on to reach Wembley.
"That was a surreal moment; a lot of personal things happened between me and the manager that season," admitted Collins. "To sit and watch at home was so strange; it was odd knowing that we played the game with a left back and right back at centre half; I'd finished the season on loan at Port Vale and done really well and I knew, for personal reasons, that the manager wouldn't have me back to play - even to the detriment of the club.
"I'm not saying that we'd have won that game if I'd played, but it was just bonkers in terms of the goals that were going in at both ends. It's everything that's great about the play-offs and just shows you the tension among players and managers."