Aston Villa today announced that the away leg of the Championship play-off game with Middlesbrough will be on the same day as Villa’s U23 Play-Off Final match at Villa Park. This will be bad news to Villans who will be making the trip to Boro and have been following the U-23’s progress this season and were planning on going to the final.
The U-23’s recent Premier League Cup Final match earlier in the week hasn’t helped in the trying to schedule the play-off match either.
The good news is that the kick-off to the U-23 play-off final will be at midday, so supporters not heading up north for the first team game, can still make it and then see the Middlesbrough game afterwards.
Tickets for the 12pm class on Saturday May 12th are priced at £4 for adults, £1 for concessions and entry is FREE for Season Ticket Holders.
The club’s statement explaining the clash of play-off games is as follows:
U23s Final: Explanation of Play-Off date
The scheduling of the match was determined by the Premier League.
Aston Villa submitted a request for the final to take place outside the designated dates of the 4th to 7th May due to our U23s participating on the Premier League Cup Final on 4th May.
Unfortunately, Brighton have a Sussex Senior Cup Final against Crawley Town on Wednesday 9th May, which we were advised could not be rescheduled thus preventing the fixture from taking place this week.
Competition rules state that the final must be played at the home venue of the highest-placed Play-Off finisher.
With our second-leg Championship play-off tie against Middlesbrough taking place on Tuesday 15th May, the fixture couldn’t take place beyond Saturday to allow sufficient time for the pitch at Villa Park to be prepared properly for the first-team.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
The club is currently working on broadcasting the game live on our media channels for supporters who are unable to attend due to travelling to Middlesbrough for the Play-Off first leg.
UTV
They could have had the match followed by middlesborough on big screen. Would fill a stand at least