Rival bosses Ian Evatt and Darren Ferguson go into the League One play-offs in confident mood – after watching their respective Bolton and Peterborough sides serve up a 3-3 final-day thriller.
Third-placed Wanderers arrived with faint automatic promotion hopes and Kyle Dempsey’s header and Dion Charles’ penalty had them in the driving seat inside eight minutes.
But they were then stung by a Posh comeback in the second half, started and finished by Malik Mothersille, either side of a Joel Randall leveller.
Posh, who finish fourth, saw their hard work undone when Cameron Jerome pulled Bolton back level with both sides still dreaming of following champions Portsmouth and Derby up into the Championship.
Wanderers now face Barnsley in the play-offs in a repeat of last-term’s semi-final loss, while Posh take on an Oxford side who thumped them 5-0 recently.
Evatt said: “We got ourselves two up, but could and should have scored more.
“The scoreline at Derby then filtered back and probably knocked a bit of stuffing out of the lads.
“I still think there are lots of positives to take this season even though we missed out on automatic promotion.
“We have improved our points tally and our league position, won more games and lost less. It’s just that when we really needed to go on a run, we’ve drawn too many games.
“But we know where we are, we know what is ahead of us and our job now is to focus on Barnsley.
“I firmly believe we’re in a better place for it than we were last season. The squad has evolved, the mentality is a lot stronger and we’ve got key personnel back at the right time.
“We go everywhere to win and that won’t change. There will be no backward steps from us.”
And Ferguson was just as bullish, saying: “We knew Bolton would start aggressively to try and un-nerve Derby – it was perfect for them and awful for us.
“If we start a game like that in the play-offs, we could be done, but it was chalk and cheese from the first half to the second.
“I don’t care if you’re Manchester City or Peterborough – if you don’t do the basics well, you won’t win.
“In the second half we did them far, far better. We were aggressive, we won tackles, we created chances and scored goals.
“When we play like that, we’re a very hard team to play against. In the end I’m disappointed not to win it after getting 3-2 ahead, but the game was a great advert for the league.
“We know we have to play very well twice to get through in the semi-finals of the play-offs.
“If we play like we did in the second half, we’ll be OK.”