Weekend Boxset: Come on you Leafe!

By Graham Sibley May 09, 2025

Weekend Boxset: Come on you Leafe!

The non-league club we follow, AFC Whyteleafe, are playing at Wembley and you can watch it on TV.

Seven great matches to take you from Friday to Sunday. It’s the Sound of Football Weekend Boxset.

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All times are UK

Friday

Championship play-off semi-final first leg: Coventry City v Sunderland

20.00 on Sky Sports Football, Main Event & Ultra
The play-offs are here again! The traditional time of year when Premier League fans take an interest in the “lower leagues”. The initial “Oooooooh! They’ve got no VAR!” eventually gives way to “this is actually quite good”. It’s almost like they can’t get their head around the fact that there’s decent football outside of the top tier - it’s puzzling for them. A bit like when you tell someone from Tunbridge Wells that you grew up in the North-East, or someone in a waxed jacket that you went to a state school. This year, however, my own interest in this set of fixtures flits from excitement to dread. Excitement in that I could get to see my beloved Sunderland at Wembley, just a game away from glory, and dread in that any success will likely spell a miserable season of heavy defeats to mid-table Premier League sides. Of course, I want them to win, but I’d look forward to next season with as much relish as I would at the prospect of re-watching the apocalyptic docu-drama, Threads. Thankfully, Regis le Bris has done his best to spare me that particular horror. Sunderland’s form going into the play-offs has been worse than any of the now relegated clubs. To be fair to the Frenchman, the Lads were play-off certainties many weeks ago, and his policy of rotation was designed to keep his players fresh both physically and mentally for this set of fixtures. Personally, I’d prefer we went into this game with at least some momentum; five straight defeats breeds an anxiety in supporters which can then affect the players. It also promotes an uncertainty in that it leaves me wondering whether the players have given up on the season with some of them planning their next move. Indeed, that’s a real concern. Sunderland have a number of talented young players who, having been blooded in the Championship, will want to try their luck at the highest level. Goalkeeper, Anthony Patterson, is linked with a move away as are the supremely talented Jobe Bellingham and Chris Rigg. Nineteen year old winger, Tom Watson, didn’t even wait for the end of the season before agreeing a move to Brighton. This coupled with the redemption arc of Coventry coach, Frank Lampard, makes me wonder if there’s something better I could be doing with my Friday night. I’ll still watch it, of course. JB

Saturday

A-League elimination-finals: Western Sydney Wanderers v Melbourne Victory

10.35 on TNT Sports 4
Two sides back to what they consider their rightful place: finals football. Wanderers are are making just their second appearance since 2017, and have genuine title aspirations, with only Auckland in better form than Alen Stajcic’s side in the A-League. Victory, meanwhile, are looking to go one better than last year and appear to have stabilised after coach Patrick Kisnorbo unexpectedly left mid-season. Both sides will also be ruing their inconsistencies earlier in the season as second place and no elimination final was within reach. Wanderers put four past Victory on the Victorians’ last visit to Parramatta, but have also been better on the road than at home. Although Victory are equally inconsistent travellers. All of which makes for a potential classic. If Wanderers fall to a strong but inconsistent Victory, it could be the last that their fans see of golden boot winner Nicolas Milanovic, with the winger expected to join Aberdeen in the off-season. But with the form of Milanovic alongside Brandon Borello and Zac Sapsford, Victory will need to be at their very best to advance to the semis. It’s not out of the question, but this could well be an incredibly tight match. GA

League One play-off semi-final 1st leg: Leyton Orient v Stockport County

12.30 on Sky Sports Football, Main Event & Ultra
In a League One season that has been dominated by Birmingham City and Wrexham with their high profile, publicity hungry owners, it’s time to celebrate two of this division's lesser known but significant contenders for promotion to the Championship. These two may have finished the regular season nine points apart but there is little between them. Orient’s terrific winning run of five games coincided with a drop-off in form of their rivals, Huddersfield, Bolton, Blackburn and to a lesser extent Reading. The Os sealed the final play-off spot with an emphatic 4-1 win at Huddersfield while Reading lost to Barnsley. The run coincides with confirmation that the club is under new majority ownership. David Gandler is a New York-based businessman who is promising investment but has not made any crazy promises. Incumbent chairman Nigel Travis stays in post. If Orient find their way through the post-season to England’s second flight it will be worth watching what impact the club makes under the new owner. Their first hurdle could not really be tougher opposition. For all the talk of Wrexham’s rise from the National League to the Championship, third placed Stockport County incline has been almost as steep and without the benefit of the Welsh club’s generous patronage. Dave Challinor’s side won promotion back to the EFL in 2022, finished fourth in their return to League Two and were promoted as Champions last season. There is an argument to say that County’s surge through the leagues is as impressive as Wrexham’s given their modest budget. And they are also in red-hot form and have dropped points only once in their last eight games. TD

Premier League: Bournemouth v Aston Villa

17.30 on Sky Sports Premier League, Main Event & Ultra
If Villa can win their last three games they will finish on more points than they did last season - but that may not be enough to return them to the next season’s Champions League, even with the bonus qualification slot. Maybe that’s why there’s a feeling that they have fallen short of what they achieved last campaign. A lacklustre defeat in the FA Cup semi-final against Palace probably doesn’t help with that feeling either. Unai Emery’s side are three points short of the top five but have a significantly inferior goal difference to the sides in those positions. A win here will however guarantee another season of European football of some description. Bournemouth had spent most of the middle section of the season ahead of Villa in the table, but positive results have petered out for Andoni Iraola. Last week’s win at the Emirates was just his second in the league since mid-February, but his side have done just enough to remain at the top of a tight group of mid-table clubs still hopeful of gaining European qualification. By the time the Cherries play their next match the FA Cup final will have been played, so they will know whether or not eighth place in the table (realistically their highest finish) will be good enough to get into the Conference League. GS

Sunday

FA Vase Final: AFC Whyteleafe v Whitstable Town

12.15 on TNT Sports 4
Around the beginning of the 2010s, not long after we’d started the Sound of Football podcast, Terry, Jan and I began to regularly go along to our local non-league club, Whyteleafe FC. At the time we promised ourselves that it would simply be for enjoying football for itself, and not something we’d be creating content for. The years in between have seen plenty of highs and lows. None lower than when the club went out of business in 2021, but none higher than this weekend when we will be going to see the club reborn from that disaster play at Wembley. Under the guidance of owner/manager Kelly Waters, the club has, in just four seasons, gone from playing park football in the twelfth tier of the pyramid to almost get back to where it was when the old club was dissolved (promotion this season is pending a decision by the Combined Counties League; it’s a long story that will hopefully be resolved soon.) Leafe boast a wealth of attacking options including Ryan Gondoh, Gaspar Mico, Aaron Watson and Daniel “Beno” Bennett, who scored three of the goals across the two legged semi-final against Andover New Street. In the past Whitstable Town regularly played against the old Whyteleafe in the Isthmian League. The Oystermen will be hoping to put behind them the disappointment of missing out on promotion back to Step 4, losing on penalties to Fisher in the Southern Counties East play-offs. The result today though is almost immaterial, with an unforgettable day out at Wembley already assured for both sets of fans and players. That said… COME ON YOU LEAFE! GS

The FA Trophy final, Aldershot Town v Spennymoor Town follows, kicking off at 16.15

League Two play-off semi-final 1st leg: Chesterfield v Walsall

15.30 on Sky Sports Football
Even though Walsall are the highest placed in the play-offs they should not be seen as the best team. That distinction, on form, at least, falls to their opponents. We frequently talk about play-off winners being the team with momentum. Well, the Spirites had been outside of the playoff places for 23 (twenty-three) weeks but an eleven-game run in which they lost only once, climaxing with a 1-0 win at Accrington Stanley last weekend, saw Paul Cook’s team pip Salford City to the final slot. Chesterfield are the only team in the play-offs who are unbeaten in their last six and that makes them the team to beat. Scorer of that crucial goal at Stanley was Will Grigg. Now 33 years old, the Northern Ireland international has netted four goals in the last six games and how he performs will be crucial. But irrespective of whether Will Grigg is on fire, Walsall’s defence will still be terrified. While their opponents spent 23 weeks outside the top seven, Mark Sadler’s Saddlers were 23 match days at the top of the League Two table from December to April. The wins dried up in February and it still took them nine games to drop down to second. Their winless run continued to the final game of the season by which time they had dropped to fourth. They could have salvaged an automatic promotion spot that for much of the season was nailed on. They finally won, 1-0 at Crewe but were thwarted by a late winner at Bradford City. One can only imagine the mindset of those players as they line-up against this hungry Chesterfield side. Time to roll out the inspirational redemption narratives. TD

League One play-off semi-final 1st leg: Wycombe Wanderers v Charlton Athletic

18.30 on Sky Sports Football, Main Event & Ultra
If you’d asked any Wycombe fan if they’d be happy with the play-offs at the start of the season, they’d have bitten your hand off. If you’d have asked them around November, they’d have bitten your head off. Matt Bloomfield may well regret his decision to abandon Adams Park when they were flying high in the League One promotion places for an unsuccessful relegation fight in the Championship with Luton, but results under his successor Mike Dodds have been decidedly mixed, with plenty of draws meaning Wycombe finished eight points off the automatics. More worryingly for Chairboys fans, they go into the play-offs off the back of a three match losing streak that included a 4-0 home loss to Charlton. For the Addicks, this season has been a welcome upturn in form after several miserable years in the lower reaches of the division. In Nathan Jones, the south Londoners have an excellent coach and will fancy their chances of ending a five year stint in the 3rd tier. There’s goals in both sides, who finished with near identical goal differences. The bookies favour Charlton and given Wycombe’s patchy form, you’d expect the Addicks to come through this one and with a psychological advantage, you’d fancy them to progress if they can go back to The Valley with a lead or with the scoreline even. With Stockport or Leyton Orient lining up to face the winners of this semi-final (see above), if Wycombe are to make the jump to the Championship, they’ll have to seriously upset the odds. GA

Whatever you watch, have a great weekend.

#BeLeafe

Graham, Terry, Jan and Gary