2024 EFL League Two Play-off Final

The 2024 EFL League Two play-off final was an association football match played on 19 May 2024 at Wembley Stadium, London, between Crewe Alexandra and Crawley Town. The match determined the fourth and final team to gain promotion from EFL League Two, the fourth tier of English football, to EFL League One. The top three teams of 2023–24 EFL League Two, Stockport County, Wrexham and Mansfield Town gained automatic promotion to League One, while the clubs placed from fourth to seventh in the table took part in the 2024 English Football League play-offs. This was the 38th fourth tier play-off final since the play-offs began in 1987, and was Crawley's first appearance at Wembley.

Route to the final

Crewe Alexandra finished the regular 2023–24 season in sixth place in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They finished 15 points behind Mansfield Town (who were promoted in third place), 17 behind second-placed Wrexham and 21 points behind league winners Stockport County.
Crewe ended the season with only one win in their last nine league games. They played fifth placed Doncaster Rovers in a two-leg semi-final. The first leg was played at Crewe's Mornflake Stadium on 6 May. Doncaster Rovers won the game 2–0 with goals from Luke Molyneux and Harrison Biggins. On 10 May in the return leg at Doncaster's Eco-Power Stadium, Crewe overturned the two-goal first-leg deficit with goals from Mickey Demetriou and an own goal from James Maxwell. The match was decided with a penalty shoot-out which Crewe won 4–3 with goalkeeper Max Stryjek, at the club on an emergency loan from Wycombe Wanderers, saving penalties from Zain Westbrooke and Hakeeb Adelakun. With the win, Crewe became the fourth team in play-off history to come back from a two-goal deficit in the first-leg, on their home ground, and still make the final.

Crawley Town finished in seventh place, a point behind Crewe Alexandra. They played Milton Keynes Dons who finished in fourth place, eight points behind third placed Mansfield Town. Playing in their first play-offs, in the first leg, played on 7 May at Crawley's Broadfield Stadium, Crawley won 3–0 with goals from Liam Kelly, Jay Williams and Ronan Darcy. The second leg was played on 11 May at Stadium MK. After only three minutes Jay Williams scored for Crawley, Danilo Orsi adding a second in the 30th minute. Max Dean scored for Milton Keynes Dons late in the first half. The one-sided game continued in the second half with Orsi scoring in the 48th minute. Dean's penalty was saved by Crawley goalkeeper, Corey Addai before Jack Roles scored in the 80th minute and Orsi completed his hat-trick in the second minute of added time to make the final score 5–1 and 8–1 on aggregate, the largest aggregate victory in EFL play-off history, as Crawley advanced to the play-off final and their first ever game at Wembley.

Match

Background

The match was Crawley Town's first appearance at Wembley in their 128-year history. The club were allocated 19,556 tickets for the West End of Wembley Stadium and a maximum of 38,676 tickets, if required. Crewe Alexandra were allocated 38,693 tickets for the East End of Wembley Stadium from the North Stand round to the South Stand.

The match was televised live by Sky Sports on both its Football and Main Event channels and was also available for live streaming on Sky Go and NOW. BBC Local Radio stations covered the game for each team: BBC Radio Stoke for Crewe Alexandra and BBC Radio Sussex and BBC Radio Surrey for Crawley Town. Talksport 2 provided national radio commentary.

Match

Dominating possession from the kick-off, Crawley went 1–0 up on 41 minutes when Danilo Orsi and Liam Kelly played a one-two before Orsi scored, shooting with the outside of his foot. Crewe believed they had won a penalty in the second-half when a mix-up between Adam Campbell and goalkeeper, Corey Addai sent Christopher Long through to one-on-one against Addai who threw a leg out. Long went down and referee Ben Toner awarded a penalty. Following VAR intervention where Toner was directed look at the screen, the decision was reversed. Liam Kelly added a second in the 85th minute when Dion Conroy's marauding forward run & through ball was met by Kelly. His initial short-range cross towards Orsi was parried by Crewe's captain Mickey Demetriou who pushed the ball back into Kelly's path to score. No further goals were scored as Crawley returned to the third tier of English football for the first time since 2015.

Details

Post-match

Crawley Town held a celebration event at their Broadfield Stadium on 20 May where supporters could meet players, get autographs and show their appreciation. Manager, Scott Lindsey apologised that some of his players were "a little drunk". Goalscorer Liam Kelly notably announced players one by one onto the pitch in his drunken manner as well as announcing that the players were going out clubbing afterwards & invited fans to join them.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:EFL League Two play-off final 2024
2024
2024 English Football League play-offs
May 2024 sports events in the United Kingdom
2024 in sport in London
Crewe Alexandra F.C. matches
Crawley Town F.C. matches