Evening. Just think, if everything had gone to plan for everyone's favourite wheeler dealer football manager then Harry Redknapp would be announcing his World Cup squad on Monday. But everything didn't go to plan for everyone's favourite wheeler dealer football manager, he's not the England manager and he's not naming his World Cup squad on Monday; instead he'll be at Loftus Road, trying to guide Queens Park Rangers into the Championship play-off final and tonight he's at the DW Stadium for the first leg of this semi-final against Wigan Athletic. Funny how life works out, isn't it. Real funny.  A lot has been made of the fact that QPR had a bigger wage bill than Atletico Madrid last season, an impressive level of achievement from both sides and one that really does hammer home the amount of money that goes to waste on mediocrity in English football. They had such grand plans at QPR. They were going to challenge for Europe and everything. It was all going to be so much fun; they had Julio Cesar and Christopher Samba and Djibril Cisse and Esteban Granero and Bobby Zamora and Joey Barton and Shaun Derry and Clint Hill. The list goes on. Shaun Wright-Phillips. Andy Johnson. And that's not all! Park Ji-Sung. Stephane Mbia. Who could have predicted that it would all go so wrong? At least Redknapp made good on his promise never to pull Tony Fernandes's trousers down, even if he couldn't save them after replacing Mark Hughes in December 2012.  Anyway the spending continued. QPR have brought in 18 players either permanently or on loan since last summer – a lot of them over-the-hill, would you believe – but it hasn't been enough to secure automatic promotion. They didn't even get close in the end, their inconsistencies in attack consigning them to the play-offs. Mind you, there's a lot of talent in that squad and they've still got a great chance of going up, especially if Ravel Morrison turns it on. He has been excellent since signing on loan from West Ham in March. Good for him.  But enough about QPR. What about Wigan? Cards on the table - I still miss their weird presence in the Premier League. They had such novelty value: they were never going to do anything but they were utterly harmless and entertaining regardless of whether they won or lost. The Premier League needs Emmerson Boyce, Jordi Gomez, Callum McManaman, Roger Espinoza. And maybe they'll be back next season. Wigan have managed to retain much of the core of their FA Cup-winning side and the quietly excellent Uwe Rosler has done a magnificent job since replacing Owen Coyle in December, the highlight surely the win at Manchester City in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. They then ran Arsenal dangerously close in their semi-final, only losing on penalties, and they will fancy themselves tonight. Not that there's ever much point in predicting what's going to happen in a play-off semi-final. Anything can happen!
Minute-by-minute report: It ended goalless in a tight first leg but both sides have it all to play for in the second leg at Loftus Road