news-engine

ALEX Neil isn’t a fan of the expansion of the play-offs this season. The top two sides in the Championship will still be automatically promoted to the Premier League, but the teams that finish in seventh and eighth will enter the end-of-season knockouts. The sides finishing fifth to eighth will play in two eliminators with the winners going forward to face the sides who finished third and fourth. If they had been in place last season, the Lions would have faced either Middlesbrough or Derby County in the semi-finals. League One and League Two remain unchanged. “Honestly, it’s not my preference. I quit liked the six,” Neil said before the opening league game of the season against Bristol City. “I think it spreads it a little bit too thin. Because what you can find is third and eighth can be the difference of 20-odd points. the fact that it gives that team [in eighth] the opportunity to go up over the course of the season – I’m not convinced on it. “I don’t think the play-offs were broken. I think the play-offs are one of the best things in the English pyramid. “I thought they served their purpose.”