Most Famous Championship Playoff Final Moments

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The Championship playoffs final is upon us this weekend when Coventry City and Luton Town meet at Wembley for a chance to get into the Premier League.

Here, we’ve put together the best Championship playoff final moments.

Swansea 4-2 Reading (2011)

Led by Brendan Rodgers, Swansea City achieved the incredible feat of getting into the Premier League for the first time back in 2011.

The thrilling encounter saw six goals in the game, but Scott Sinclair was the hero that day as he became the first and only player in history to score a hat-trick in the final.

Blackpool 3-2 Cardiff City (2010)

Blackpool made history by getting into the Premier League by narrowly beating Cardiff City back in 2010 in a season where many predicted them to fight relegation.

Cardiff took the lead on two occasions but the headlines were stolen by Charlie Adam’s wonderous free kick before Brett Ormerod netted towards the end game.

The Tangerines were also one of the only sides in Championship playoff final history to win the competition by finishing sixth.

West Ham United 2-1 Blackpool (2012)

As Blackpool spent just one year in the Premier League, they were back in the final of the Championship playoffs to play out another tense game with West Ham United.

Sam Allardyce was in charge of the Hammers back then and he led his back into the Premier League at the second time of asking. Carlton Cole opened the scoring in that game before Tom Ince netted an equaliser.

Ricardo Vaz Te was the hero that day as he scored his 12th goal in 18 games. The Hammers have been in the Premier League ever since and it means they are the longest-serving side in the top flight who came through the playoffs.

Hull City 1-0 Bristol City (2016)

At 39, Dean Windass made Hull City history as he scored a thunderous volley in the 1-0 win over Bristol City in the first half, as the Tigers got into the Premier League for the first time.

It was a fairly dull game, but the Windass winning goal will go down in Championship playoff final folklore, as one of Hull’s own rocketed them into the Premier League.

QPR 1-0 Derby County (2014)

Another lacklustre game at Wembley came in 2014 and it was a 90 minutes that was stolen by one moment and one man.

Bobby Zamora’s last-minute strike earned Queens Park Rangers a spot back in the top flight after Richard Keogh’s devastating mistake in the Derby County goal.

It remains the latest winning goal in playoff final history and one of the game’s most important goals.