The recent form had been noted by more than just our fans and I landed the manager of the month award for April. But we were now in May, so April had to be forgotten. We went into our last game at home to
Walsall knowing that we had to win to have a chance of finishing second ahead of Wigan, who had to draw or lose.
Martin got us off to a superb start by scoring in the first ten minutes but Walsall had levelled before half-time.
Corazzin scored his thirty-fifth of the season early in the second half and, despite the loss of Fortune-West to two yellow cards late on, we held out for the
two-one victory. But Wigan had won as well, so we
finished third and would now compete in the play-offs.
Before the semi-final first leg against
Swindon, away, Martin completed his loan and returned to Middlesbrough and we couldn’t get him back. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Westwood picked up an injury in the first minute of the match. Swindon then took the lead but
Corazzin levelled affairs before half-time. We then had a goal disallowed in the second half with just fifteen minutes to go. We must have let this get to us as we completely capitulated and conceded three before the final whistle.
We lost four-one and now had a mammoth task in the return leg.
We needed to win by three goals to nil to go through as we faced
Swindon at home in the semi-final second leg. There was no doubting it would be difficult, especially as Swindon held out for twenty minutes and nearly went ahead themselves. However, a superb twenty-five minute period in the rest of the half saw
Fortune-West, Corazzin twice and
Matthews all score to take us in at the break four goals up. It would have been enough to send us to the final, but we couldn’t hold out. Swindon got one back and then another with just ten minutes left. They pulled back a third as we searched for a goal to keep us in the tie but it wasn’t to be and, despite
winning four-three on the night, we went out seven-five on aggregate.
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">********************************************* ************************************* English Second Division - Sunday 26th May 2002********************************************** ************************************============== ================================================== ================== 2001/2 Table============================================= =====================================Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts----------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st C Brentford 46 19 2 2 58 29 11 6 6 42 35 982nd P Wigan 46 17 4 2 42 19 10 6 7 36 30 91----------------------------------------------------------------------------------3rd HARTLEPOOL 46 16 4 3 52 22 12 1 10 40 34 894th Swansea 46 14 5 4 33 20 11 6 6 41 32 865th P Orient 46 18 4 1 47 20 6 7 10 27 37 836th Swindon 46 15 4 4 57 28 9 3 11 36 46 79----------------------------------------------------------------------------------7th Burnley 46 18 3 2 51 18 5 6 12 22 35 788th Rotherham 46 13 6 4 38 20 8 5 10 33 34 749th Preston 46 14 2 7 47 34 9 1 13 26 40 7210th Blackpool 46 10 6 7 38 29 9 7 7 38 35 7011th Notts C 46 13 7 3 46 29 7 3 13 44 55 7012th Oldham 46 12 5 6 38 27 8 4 11 20 24 6913th Walsall 46 12 4 7 33 21 7 6 10 34 33 6714th Millwall 46 10 7 6 40 25 7 1 15 34 55 5915th Wrexham 46 10 4 9 36 30 6 2 15 20 43 5416th Cambridge Utd 46 10 5 8 42 34 3 9 11 22 38 5317th Northampton 46 11 4 8 43 32 4 4 15 23 48 5318th Bristol R 46 9 4 10 30 37 4 6 13 16 27 4919th Reading 46 7 11 5 39 30 3 4 16 24 48 4520th Mansfield 46 9 5 9 32 33 3 4 16 18 39 45----------------------------------------------------------------------------------21st R Wycombe 46 8 5 10 25 27 4 3 16 23 39 4422nd R Bury 46 10 2 11 35 36 1 8 14 22 47 4323rd R Barnsley 46 5 8 10 34 45 3 6 14 27 51 3824th R Oxford 46 11 0 12 31 37 0 3 20 14 62 36</pre>
*Side note : Steve Bruce guided Derby straight back to the Premiership* 
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