Southend got the ball rolling a weeklast Friday and could not manage to break down ten-man Doncaster Rovers at Roots Hall in their League One semi-final first leg, before Championship play-off favourites Crystal Palace slipped up 2-1 against Bristol City on home soil at Selhurst Park.

Darlington bucked the trend on Saturday evening with a last-gasp 2-1 win against highly-fancied League Two rivals Rochdale at their Arena, although anyone who witnessed the game will still wonder how Keith Hill's visitors lost after dominating for long periods.

Back to the Championship and the semi-final first leg on the Sunday dished up another shock as Watford were humbled 2-0 a Vicarage Road by Phil Brown's Hull City, before Wycombe were held on home turf by Stockport later in the day's second League Two showdown.

It was definitely not 'Home Sweet Home' for Leeds as they crashed to a shock 2-1 defeat against Carlisle at Elland Road last Monday in their League One first leg showdown with Dougie Freedman's goal in the sixth minute of injury time ensuring it was not a heavier defeat for Gary McAllister's side.

Football betting fans expecting Bristol City to ease their way into the play-off final against Crystal Palace in their second leg at Ashton Gate on Tuesday will have had their fingers burnt. Neil Warnock's side won the game 1-0 over the 90 minutes - and would have gone through had goalscorer Ben Watson not missed the chance to grab his second from the penalty spot 15 minutes from time.

True Gary Johnson's Robins picked themselves up in extra-time to secure a place at Wembley on May 24 thanks to two stunning goals from Lee Trundle and Michael McIndoe. However not before a mighty scare from the plucky Eagles.

Hull will fight it out with Bristol City for a place in the Premier League next season after finally showing the others how it should be done at home in these games with a 4-1 second leg win at the KC Stadium. However they still had a scare when Darius Henderson fired Watford ahead to give them some hope before the Tigers eventually came back to progress 6-1 on aggregate.

Leeds turned up at Brunton Park 2-1 down from the first leg and promptly won 2-0 against Carlisle thanks to a brace from Jon Howson to secure a Wembley date in the League One play-offs as the trend got back on track last Thursday.

The Whites will play Doncaster Rovers, who were the only side who dominated the entire 90 minutes of their home leg to romp to a 5-1 win against Southend on Friday evening, while in League Two Rochdale needed penalties to get past Darlington at Spotland and Stockport scraped past Wycombe 1-0 at Edgeley Park on Saturday.

So what is it with the away team seemingly performing better in the majority of these games?

Personally I believe it is all psychological with teams playing at home feeling the pressure of the favourites tag and the expectation from their fans to take some sort of lead into the second leg.

The home team in the second leg - if they have a lead from the away tie - can maybe feel the pressure of not throwing away a fantastic opportunity to progress and move one step closer to the ultimate prize of promotion via a Wembley final date.

Whatever the reasons there is no argument that the end of season play-offs just seem to be getting better and better by the year, throwing up some exceptional football and gripping tension.

Long may they continue!

Written by Craig Smithson, a Middlesbrough season-ticket holder and a professional sports writer who blogs about football betting at Betfair.