WHILE the first bank holiday in May brings out my inner snooker geek (did you see Stuart Bingham’s thrilling win over Shaun Murphy in the World Championships?) the second means only one thing for thousands of football fans up and down the land — the play-off finals.

For those involved it will either be the best or the worst day of your life – and the outcome is about as easy to predict as a coin toss.

I’ve been to three play-off finals at Wembley — two heart-breaking losses (Tranmere Rovers in 1991 and Watford in 1999) punctuated by that glorious game against Reading in 1995.

Were you there?

I was, as an awkward 15-year-old with my mum, dad and twin sister.

I had been to the Tranmere game with my granddad but was perhaps too young to get fully caught up in the hope then disappointment. But the Reading game came at the peak of my fandom.

Could my heroes, led by Bruce Rioch and Colin Todd, really make it to the top level of English football — from Endsleigh League Division One to the FA Carling Premiership — to play the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal and Coventry?

Whites had lost out on the title to Middlesbrough and there was only one automatic promotion place that season (football bosses were reducing the number of teams in the Premiership from 22 to 20) meaning the runners-up had to fight it out in play-offs.

As it was, we missed out on second place to Reading, setting up a memorable two-leg play-off semi-final with fierce rivals Wolves.

I admit now that I’ve had to do a bit of research on this as my memory has faded over the years. So I was surprised to read who the fourth team in the play-offs was that year. Any guesses?

For Wanderers fans of a certain age, the final goes down as one of the best games we have ever seen.

Forget beating Manchester United at Old Trafford under Big Sam, forget drawing 2-2 away to Bayern Munich under Gary Megson, forget even beating Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield in that White Hot FA Cup game. The Reading game beats them all.

We were 2-0 down in 12 minutes and facing a penalty to make it 3-0 before half time, Whites were down and out. But up stepped keeper Keith Branagan to keep out Stuart Lovell's spot kick and the rest is not just history, but the stuff of legend.

Owen Coyle got the comeback underway on 75 minutes before Fabian de Freitas — who seemingly couldn’t hit a barn door with a banjo all season — popped up with a sublime equaliser just four minutes from the end.

At 2-2 there was only going to be one winner — one half of Wembley was rocking the other half already defeated. Whites went on to win the game 4-3. We were relegated from the Premiership after one woeful season — but it was all worth it just for that one match.

Oh, and the fourth team in the play-offs that year? Tranmere Rovers. Whatever happened to them?