AFC Wimbledon vs Walsall: Who can conquer Wembley and seal promotion to League One?

AFC Wimbledon and Walsall have had very different routes to this season’s League Two play-off final.

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.

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.

They 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.

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.

Tale of the tape – the key info heading into the final

This is a meeting between the best attack in League Two (Walsall, scored 75 goals) vs the best defence (AFC Wimbledon, conceded 35).
AFC Wimbledon have never failed to score in five EFL play-off games. They have kept clean sheets in four of their five games.
Walsall last won promotion via the play-offs in 2001 when they were promoted from the third tier under Ray Graydon.
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.
Walsall have only played at Wembley once before, losing 2-0 vs Bristol City in the 2015 EFL Trophy final under Dean Smith.
The winners of the final are reported to benefit from more than £2m in extra income from promotion.

Kick-off at 3.01pm… but why?

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.
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.
To access BHF’s free, simple and easy-to-use online tool, RevivR, search ‘BHF RevivR’ or visit revivr.bhf.org.uk/efl

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How AFC Wimbledon reached the final

Johnnie Jackson: Chance to write chapter in our club’s rich history

AFC Wimbledon manager Johnnie Jackson:

“I think it would probably be the best (promotion) of the lot, to be honest. This is why you get into it and why I wanted to coach and manage.

“I’ve had some successes with promotions as a player and also as a coach, but to get that accolade as a manager would probably top the lot.

“They’ve got no God-given right, but these boys deserve the opportunity to be where they are for the hard work that they’ve put in and the way they’ve bought into the club.

“As you know, it’s a club with rich history, especially around Wembley with the 1988 FA Cup final and the 2016 team that got promoted.

“It’s an opportunity for my boys now to write their own chapter.”

A tight game of limited chances?

Aaron McLean on the Sky Sports Essential EFL podcast:

“There’s not going to be a huge amount of opportunities. And we’ve got two really talented, bright and young prospects in goal with Owen Goodman and Tommy Simkin.

“They’re both on loan. Goodman is from Palace and Simkin from Stoke, and they’ll want to show what good players they are. They’ll want to make sure they can get a promotion on their CV in their young career.”

How Walsall reached the final

Mat Sadler: We want to finish the job

“We’re looking forward to it, of course. Last Friday night was great, a great experience for everyone at the club.

“I thought we played very well and it was a really good team performance over the two legs. Now we want to back that up and finish the job.

“Everybody’s eyes are straight on it. There was an incredible outpouring of emotion, but straightaway we are focused on it.

“It never changed [having a job to do] in my message after Friday. We enjoyed it and I really wanted them to.

“The pitch is a vulnerable place, in big moments and games, but we had a day to enjoy it as a really tight-knit group together. But we’re ready to work.”

Can Adomah make the difference?

Albert Adomah may be 37 but he showed off the bench in the second leg that he still has what it takes to make the difference, with his brilliant cameo providing two assists and a moment of skill that will live long in the memory.

David Stowell on the Sky Sports Essential EFL podcast:

“You know with Adomah, you’re always going to get the work-rate.

“He’s always going to show that desire, and he’s got that ability to make something happen, to come up with something spectacular in terms of scoring a goal, or putting chances on a plate for somebody up front.

“He may well at some stage, whether it’s from the off or from the bench, provide something that could be the difference. “

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