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Ask Steve Claridge

Steve Claridge
Claridge is a pundit for The Football League Show and Football Focus

This Sunday sees the climax of the Football League season with the League Two play-off final at Wembley.

I give my views on Dagenham & Redbridge and Rotherham and how each team might fare if they win promotion.

I also look at Aidy Boothroyd's appointment as Coventry boss and who Colchester should look at to replace him, as well as considering what the future holds for Nottingham Forest manager Billy Davies and whether Blackpool's Bloomfield Road home is up to scratch as a Premier League ground.

Next week will be my final column of the season, and I will also be revealing my teams of the season for the Championship, League One and League Two. If you have a question for me, you can submit it through Twitter at http://twitter.com/AskClaridge or use the form on the top right of the page.


Who do you think will win the League Two play-off final between Dagenham & Redbridge and Rotherham?
Sean, N.Ireland

It's a good match-up this one, between two very different teams.

Rotherham are a good, strong side at that level. They have more experience and an effective style and are one of the few teams who will actually love playing at Wembley on that pitch. It will be like a bowling green compared to what they've been used to.

Dagenham are a young side with one or two inexperienced players. There's a lot of hungry boys there, players who have been bought out of the non-league. They like to get the ball down and play.

Even when they went up to Morecambe in the semi-finals with a 6-0 lead from the first leg, they tried to win the game. They still knocked the ball around - that's the only way they can play - and that impressed me.

Rotherham went into the play-offs in no sort of form but stopped Aldershot scoring in both legs of their semi-finals, while Dagenham obviously had that wonderful win against Morecambe at home. It's going to be a very close game but I've got a sneaky feeling Dagenham are going to edge it - nothing more than that though.

Coventry City have named Aidy Boothroyd as manager - how well do you think Aidy will do with the Sky Blues?
Shaun Rowbotham, England

Boothroyd unveiled as Coventry boss

It's a fantastic chance for him. It's not make or break in his managerial career but it's certainly a crossroads. His time at Colchester wasn't a disappointment but it also wasn't an unmitigated success.

If you look at Boothroyd's record, I think in the last 14 games with the U's he picked up seven points. That's a worse record in his last 14 games than Chris Coleman, who was obviously sacked by Coventry, but got 14 points in the same period.

It's good that Aidy got the chance at Colchester and you could argue that he didn't deserve to be out of the game for so long between leaving Watford and getting that post. Coventry is a very decent job to get off the back of what has happened for him since but there's absolutely no reason why he can't make a success of it.

I'm a Colchester fan and am genuinely quite disappointed that Aidy Boothroyd has left for Coventry. I wish him the best of luck. However, who do you think that Colchester should look to now?
Andy, England

They are an ambitious club with a great new ground. I know what they were paying Aidy and they didn't hold back.

Whoever they employ, that person needs to understand what size of club Colchester are. They need to know where they are and what they're trying to do. They need to share that ambition.

I'm not sure they could get him because he is being linked to Portsmouth but Steve Cotterill, who has just left Notts County, is a very good manager. He did a good job at Burnley under very difficult circumstances and he had an excellent time at Cheltenham. I couldn't understand why he couldn't get another job for a while. Sometimes the people giving out the jobs don't know the full story. They need to look a bit further than just results.

Hi Steve, do you think Billy Davies will stay on as Nottingham Forest manager?
Mick Cox, England

I think Davies will stay and I think he should. There's no reason for him to move; Forest came very close to going up to the Premier League and they've been very good for each other.

It doesn't matter what Billy says about needing to spend more money, because they've given him plenty of armoury to have a go. They've got six forwards who are fantastic at that level for example.

But he's only doing what any other manager would do, which is try to get more and more good players at his club. All managers, even those in a really strong position, are two players short of what they need. Even when they buy six players they're two players short!

Davies knows he is in a strong position; he knows Forest have had a good year. If they were in the bottom three then he wouldn't be making the sort of noises he has about leaving.

How are Premier League clubs going to cope with Blackpool's dire facilities? They really are a disgrace.
Steve Wood, England

Is Bloomfield Road suitable for a Premier League season? Are there any rules governing minimum capacity and if not, do you think there should be, as 12,555 seats doesn't seem sufficient, especially considering the away support some clubs enjoy.
Guy Sandison, Ormskirk

I don't see the problem. Three parts of Bloomfield Road are nice and they will use the money they generate from being promoted to finish it so it's a 20,000 all-seater. The whole point of getting into the Premier League for a club like Blackpool is to put some sort of infrastructure in place.

If you want to talk about a disgrace, what about Portsmouth? Don't moan about Blackpool when you've got a team like Portsmouth who have spent six years in the Premier League, blown millions of pounds on players and still don't have a training base or a decent ground. At least Blackpool are trying to address that.

Blackpool's Bloomfield Road ground
Bloomfield Road is set to host top-flight football for the first time since 1971

Blackpool have said the first thing they're going to do is get a new training ground and finish their stadium. If they get relegated then so be it but, if they are sensible with their money, what happens next is that instead of having one good year in 10 in the Championship, they might have five good years in 10 and get back in the top flight again.

If you go up to the Premier League and get relegated then make sure you have a legacy from it. There is no point taking risks in their situation because they could spend £90m and still get relegated!

No-one's expecting Blackpool to stay up so they've got nothing to lose. They should go and enjoy themselves and have a great time with no pressure. They've got a super manager in Ian Holloway and he is someone who certainly will know how to enjoy himself.

If they get relegated you get the feeling they'll do it their way. They might take a few hammerings but blimey are they going to have some fun along the way. Good luck to them.


Steve Claridge is a BBC Football League pundit who played more than 800 matches for 15 clubs over the course of a 24-year playing career. He was talking to Chris Bevan.



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