Cheltenham Town 0 Northampton Town 1

My piece from the Monday paper

Luke Guttridge sealed Northampton's place in the play-off final - three years after the club got rid of him.

Former manager Ian Sampson released Guttridge, but the feisty midfielder was brought back by current boss Aidy Boothroyd and repaid his faith with some style in the 28th minute.

Striker Ade Akinfenwa flicked on Lee Collins throw-in and Guttridge volleyed home his second of the season past helpless keeper Scott Brown from 25 yards to add to Ray O'Donovan's first leg winner.

Boothroyd was delighted to get through to a final against home town club Bradford and said: "It's going to be a strange one for me and the family won't be getting any free tickets. We were resolute and played the game and not the occasion. We've done reasonably well to be where we are and we've now got to go and finish the job off against another good team."

Northampton stopper Lee Nicholls shut out last season's beaten finalists from the spot in the fifteenth minute. Ben Tozer up-ended fellow midfielder Russell Penn as he darted into the box, but Wigan loanee Nicholls did superbly to get down and push Marlon Pack's poor penalty kick away.

And Nicholls produce two point blank saves from substitutes Kaid Mohamed and Shaun Harrad as the Robins became increasingly desperate.

Disappointed Cheltenham boss Mark Yates refused to single out Pack's penalty miss and said: "I'm not criticising anyone. We win as a team and we lose as a team. The players have done the town proud and have to pick themselves up and go for a good night out. It's an achievement to get to the play-offs in successive seasons, but it's no consolation at the moment."

Birmingham City 1 Blackburn Rovers 1

My piece from Sunday's paper

Jordan Rhodes made it a rotten 48 hours for former boss Lee Clark and Birmingham City.

Scotland international striker Rhodes snatched a point for Rovers in the 66th minute to leave his old Huddersfield manager Clark groaning:

"No-one needs to tell me what that boy's about and I told my players. He reacted to the situation and my defenders didn't."

England keeper Jack Butland did brilliantly to block David Jones's point blank header from Morten Gamst Pedersen's long throw, but the rebound popped up for Rhodes to head in his 28th goal of the season from two yards.

Keeper Butland, 20, said:

"Sometimes you get lucky when you make a save and it'll go clear and sometimes you get a good striker like Jordan Rhodes who's in the right place at the right time."

But the England stopper took the positives from his season long loan from Stoke and revealed:

"I've enjoyed this season, it's been good. It's been everything I needed it to be. I've had a lot of games and had a chance to make my mistakes, but I've been pretty consistent and learned a lot as well."

But Clark was left seething with the performance and blasted:

"We've got better standards than we showed in the second half. It was a decent first half and we could've been more than one goal up. If we'd done it right we could've put the game to bed.

"But it was poor in the second half. It looked like a last day of the season game which makes me unhappy.

"I'm disappointed not to have finished higher because of the goal difference - that's been our Achilles heel."

To make matters worse for City, it was announced on Friday that club President and major shareholder Carson Yeung has lost a two year legal battle he has been waging in Hong Kong and will now face trial on money laundering charges.

Ravel Morrison opened the scoring three minutes before half time in Clark's 50th game in charge.

West Ham loanee Morrison was fed the ball by fellow midfielder Morgaro Gomis on the left  of the area and drilled it past Poland keeper Grzegorz Sandomierski from fourteen yards for his third goal of the campaign.

Both goalkeepers produced excellent saves before the break.

Butland raced out to close the gap on Rhodes before getting down to palm his low shot to safety in the 27th minute.

Five minutes later Sandomierski beat away winger Nathan Redmond's swerving thirty yard strike.

And Sandomierski also did well to claim a long range dipping volley just under his crossbar from Swindon loanee full back Paul Caddis.

Meanwhile Blackburn's Indian owners, the Venky family, were ordered to pay former boss Henning Berg £2.25 million in compensation by the High Court this week following his 57 days in charge.

Rovers caretaker boss Gary Bowyer has now seen three managers sacked this season and has been tipped to land the role on a permanent basis, but will need to sort out the futures of 61 players including eight loanees during the summer break if he gets the nod.

Bowyer identified Rhodes as Rovers main man and said:

"He's been outstanding for us all season and deserves all the plaudits. He's contracted to the club and the club have invested a lot of money in him so we need to build a team around him to strive to get into the Premier League.

"In the first half we didn't play with the tempo and intensity we have done in recent weeks, but in the second half we could've nicked it."

Bowyer will find out his week whether Indian owners, the Venky's, will give him the role on a permanent basis and he admitted:

"It's an important summer for the football club. The main conversations were about how to get through these last couple of games and that had to be the main focus. Obviously all the talk now will be who will be appointed or will it be me and that's something the powers-that-be will have to discuss.

"Hopefully we'll find out more in the coming week. This is the first time I've enjoyed it because we're safe."

But Clark is already planning for better times and said:

"It'll be exactly the same as this season in terms of there'll not be a transfer fee being paid. And the budget will be nowhere near where it was, so players coming in will not be getting the salaries that the players have in the past.

"The kids have been brilliant and so they deserve an opportunity. I'll probably carry three or four players next year in terms of age and experience and it's important that you have those types of players.

"I'll get some good young players and they'll be rewarded if they're successful. That'll be the difference in the contracts now and going forward. If they help he club get where it wants to be, they'll get the financial rewards. They'll just not be sitting on massive contracts for not being successful. That ain't a bad model.

"I know we're getting forced into it a little bit, but even if I had a transfer kitty, this is the way I want to go in terms of young players. I'm looking forward to it. I'm excited. It'll be tough, I'm not daft, but this club's still a massive pull for players."

And Monday's clipping