This was how Alf Ramsey famously rallied his England troops at the end of normal time in the 1966 World Cup final after a last-gasp German equaliser had levelled the scores at 2-2.

They proved to be not only wise words, but also hugely inspirational with the Three Lions going on to lift the Jules Rimet Trophy to ensure their manager's impromptu team-talk would pass into football folklore.

Fast forward 42 years and the managers of all three Yorkshire clubs preparing to kick-off their play-off challenge could be forgiven for using Ramsey's sentiments as a starting point for their own team-talks during the next few days.

Doncaster Rovers will get us underway tonight when they travel to Southend United and will be followed on Sunday by Hull City making the trip south to Watford. Leeds United will then round off the county's involvement in the semi-final first leg ties by hosting Carlisle United on Monday night.

All three – admittedly to a varying extent – can consider themselves unfortunate to not be sitting at home or on a beach right now having already sealed promotion by the automatic route.

Leeds, but for the points penalty imposed by the Football League, would already be up thanks to the 27 victories and 10 draws they claimed across the regular season. This makes Ramsey's words particularly pertinent for Gary McAllister.

It is a similar story in Doncaster with Rovers having gone into the final game at Cheltenham with one foot already in the Championship.

Unfortunately, despite creating chance after chance in the second half, Sean O'Driscoll's men were beaten 2-1, allowing Nottingham Forest, a team whose manager Colin Calderwood wrote off their automatic hopes just six weeks earlier, to clinch second place behind Swansea City.

Hull's sense of loss may not compare with either Leeds or Doncaster, results elsewhere on the final day meaning their own game at Ipswich was academic with third place having been assured the previous week.

Even so, there is no getting away from the fact that, with just three games to go, the Tigers were in second place with the club's promotion fate in their own hands only for defeat against 10-man Sheffield United at Bramall Lane to hand the initiative to Stoke City.

It means that all three White Rose clubs could be forgiven for going into the upcoming play-offs with a sense of 'what might have been?'

The big question now, however, is which of them – if any – can make amends between now and the end of the Spring Bank Holiday?

Looking at the Championship, the Tigers have been handed what seems like a dream semi-final with Watford having won just once in their last 14 games. Confidence at Vicarage Road must be at rock bottom so it is difficult to see anyone but Hull progressing to the final where they will probably face revitalised Crystal Palace.

Momentum is the buzzword when the play-offs come round and Palace certainly have plenty of it, but Hull beat Neil Warnock's men at the KC last month – the London club's only defeat in 12 – and that could prove to be the difference.

League One is equally fascinating with the key probably being how Doncaster and Carlisle, the latter seeming to have second spot sewn up at the start of April, react to the disappointment of missing out on automatic promotion.

O'Driscoll has had a huge job this week to lift his players and, hopefully, the character that saw Rovers bounce back from a disappointing start to 2007-08 will hold sway.

Like Southend and Doncaster, Leeds and Carlisle will both go into their semi-final meeting with a record of 'won one, lost one' against their opponents during the regular season. United's win came just under four weeks ago and it is telling that the Cumbrians have not won since, a run that Gary McAllister's side should be able to extend.

That would leave us with the mouth-watering prospect of an all-Yorkshire final of Doncaster v Leeds. And the winners? No idea.