AFC Wimbledon and Walsall have had very different routes to this season’s League Two play-off final.<\/p>\n
Walsall were 12 points clear at the top of the table at the start of the year, but the most dramatic of fall-offs saw them battling to even stay in the automatic promotion places on the final day, when they were pipped to promotion thanks to a dramatic winner for Bradford against Fleetwood.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile for the Dons, who scored the fewest of the top seven teams in the regular season, but also conceded the fewest, four points separated them from eighth-placed Salford.<\/p>\n
\n Monday 26th May 2:00pm
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\n Kick off 3:01pm
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<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\nThey have spent this season and the previous two in the fourth tier, but it has been a longer wait for a return to League One for Walsall, who were relegated at the end of the 2018\/19 campaign.<\/p>\n
Johnnie Jackson has experienced promotion before; as a player with Notts County and Charlton and also as a coach with the Addicks. To complete the hat-trick and do it as a manager, he will need to overcome Mat Sadler’s side, who will be hell-bent on ensuring they go up, by hook or by crook.<\/p>\n
Tale of the tape – the key info heading into the final<\/h3>\n\n- This is a meeting between the best attack in League Two (Walsall, scored 75 goals) vs the best defence (AFC Wimbledon, conceded 35).<\/li>\n
- AFC Wimbledon have never failed to score in five EFL play-off games. They have kept clean sheets in four of their five games.<\/li>\n
- Walsall last won promotion via the play-offs in 2001 when they were promoted from the third tier under Ray Graydon.<\/li>\n
- Wimbledon’s last visit to Wembley was an 3-0 FA Cup third-round defeat at Spurs in Jan 2018. Harry Kane (2) and Jan Vertonghen scored.<\/li>\n
- Walsall have only played at Wembley once before, losing 2-0 vs Bristol City in the 2015 EFL Trophy final under Dean Smith.<\/li>\n
- The winners of the final are reported to benefit from more than \u00a32m in extra income from promotion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n
Kick-off at 3.01pm… but why?<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n\n- The EFL play-off finals look a little different this year with all three matches now set to kick-off one minute later than scheduled. Launching at last season’s play-offs, Every Minute Matters has already surpassed the initial target of encouraging 270,000 people – three times the capacity of Wembley Stadium – to learn CPR. <\/li>\n
- Now, the campaign is aiming to go further by encouraging 360,000 people to use the British Heart Foundation’s online RevivR tool and to start learning the lifesaving technique by the time the Play-Off Finals come round.<\/li>\n
- To access BHF’s free, simple and easy-to-use online tool, RevivR, search ‘BHF RevivR’ or visit revivr.bhf.org.uk\/efl<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Have your say! Vote for your winner and predict the score<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Monterosa<\/span>
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Kick-off at 3.01pm… but why?<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n\n- The EFL play-off finals look a little different this year with all three matches now set to kick-off one minute later than scheduled. Launching at last season’s play-offs, Every Minute Matters has already surpassed the initial target of encouraging 270,000 people – three times the capacity of Wembley Stadium – to learn CPR. <\/li>\n
- Now, the campaign is aiming to go further by encouraging 360,000 people to use the British Heart Foundation’s online RevivR tool and to start learning the lifesaving technique by the time the Play-Off Finals come round.<\/li>\n
- To access BHF’s free, simple and easy-to-use online tool, RevivR, search ‘BHF RevivR’ or visit revivr.bhf.org.uk\/efl<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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