YOU DO NOT GET TOO MANY OPPORTUNITIES IN LIFE TO WIPE THE SLATE CLEAN. THIS IS ONE OF THEM.

Whatever has happened over the past nine months does not matter. Defeats for West Ham at home this season by playoff qualifiers Derby and Preston do not matter. Neither does taking four points from the games played against today’s opponents, Ipswich. None of that counts any longer.

It has been argued that the promotion playoffs are an unnecessary addition to the end of the season. While others know their fate and can plan financially for which division they will be in come August, you are in limbo. Will you be adding to your squad, or trying to keep your best players, while having to let others go? The transfer market is volatile at the best of times, but being stalled by the playoffs and having an uncertain future means that rivals for a player’s signature can make the first move, in some cases a full two weeks ahead of you.

The playoffs are fantastic entertainment for the neutral. Forget the Champions League, forget even the FA Cup. Lose one of those finals and you are down for a day. Lose a playoff final and you are down for another season.

Much as they have given us some great drama over the years though, there are obviously casualties. For the team finishing in third place in the table it hurts most. You have proved yourselves over 46 games to be worthy of the third promotion place, but find you are facing trial by playoff against a team who, to take today as an example, have finished a full 12 points behind you.

One of my lasting memories from last season – apart from the exceptional West Ham support that was still singing into the late hours of a Cardiff evening long after the bewildered Crystal Palace fans had left for London to contemplate promotion – was of Ipswich manager Joe Royle after the second-leg defeat in last season’s semi-final, here at Upton Park.

Incredibly, it was Ipswich’s 13th playoff game since their first involvement in 1986-87. When Royle emerged from the dressing room, he wore a scowl on his face that his players have grown to know and fear.

“I hate these playoffs, I really hate them,” he growled. “I wish we’d never even qualified.”

“You don’t mean that Joe.”

“I do,” he said angrily. “It just gets everybody’s hopes ups and messes with the end of season. Third should be good enough, end of story. It’s messed up the beginning of next season too. And my holiday.”

That was of course a gut reaction from a man whose team had missed out. For West Ham, the playoffs have proved to be a lifeline. Without them, the club would have simply recorded a fourth-place finish last season, followed by sixth place this. Close but no cigar. Thanks to the playoffs, last season could and perhaps should have ended with a swift return to the Premiership. Now, with the team having found its best form since the season began, the chance is there again.

No team has the right to expect promotion. Ipswich will claim, with some justification, that their form throughout the season deserves some reward. But Iain Dowie and Crystal Palace proved last term that once the season has ended and the playoffs begin, anything is possible.

The atmosphere at Upton Park for last season’s semi-final was reminiscent of the European nights of the 1970s. The majority contingent of West Ham fans among the 72,500 in Cardiff for the final put in the best performance of the afternoon.

The one positive thought that West Ham fans clung on to that day was that it had at least been good experience for a basically young team. It would bode well for the future. Well, the future is now, so let’s not blow it this time, eh? Let’s be blowing bubbles instead.