Hull City – Sheffield Wednesday. Thomas Giles prediction

So here it is, the playoff final, so often touted as the most valuable game of the season, possibly even the most valuable game in footballing history this season. With the new £3bn TV rights deal coming into the Premier League next year now is the time to get promoted, especially for the fat cat chairmen of the Football League…

Now to matters on the pitch. Hull City will have been disappointed to miss out on automatic promotion back to the Premier League but that certainly did not put them off in their playoff semi-final win against Derby County. The Tigers sent the Rams to the slaughter (in the first leg at least) to book their place at Wembley this Saturday. Hull City certainly go into this match as favourites, and with good reason. They have one of the highest budgets in the league and had the best defensive record outside of the top two this campaign. Furthermore, they have a player in Uruguayan striker Abel Hernandez who is more than capable of scoring the goals for them.

Sheffield Wednesday surprised everybody when they blasted their way through their playoff semi final against nearly-men Brighton and Hove Albion. They once again go into this game as underdogs and, while they are likely to put pressure on themselves in order to perform, everybody else is expecting Hull to win. They are a decent side capable of mixing it up with different options, especially up front with the likes of Gary Hooper and Atdhe Nuhiu whilst Ross Wallace can provide a bit of stardust (as shown in their two playoff semi finals against Brighton). The Owls have certainly carried their excellent end of season momentum into their playoff campaign.

However, despite Sheffield Wednesday being a good side, I cannot see past Steve Bruce’s Hull City side. As mentioned in one of my previous predictions on Hull, Bruce is incredibly experienced at this level and has been in this position before so knows what it takes to get through. Not only do the Tigers have an experienced manager, they also have experienced players and none more so than Michael Dawson and Curtis Davies at the back who I do not think Sheffield Wednesday will be able to find a way past.

There is no real value in backing a straight Hull win so I would go with ‘Only Hull to score’ at 9/4.