It is hard to recover from the disappointment of playing 49 matches over nine months to end up back where you started, only with added dejection. It is painstaking work to get to a playoff final and when you lose it, a strict plan is needed to avoid slipping off the pace the following season.
Only six teams have lost the Championship playoff final and gone up the next year since the turn of the century. At the other end of the spectrum, Leeds went from being 90 minutes from the Premier League in 2006 to relegation the next season. A loss can have huge knock-on effects.
