2024 EFL League Two play-off final

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2024 EFL League Two play-off final
Wembley Stadium in London hosted the final.
Crawley Town Crewe Alexandra
2 0
Date19 May 2024 (2024-05-19)
VenueWembley Stadium, London
RefereeBen Toner (Lancashire)
Attendance33,341
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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.[1] This was the 38th fourth tier play-off final since the play-offs began in 1987,[2] and was Crawley's first appearance at Wembley.

Route to the final

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Main articles: 2023–24 EFL League Two and 2024 English Football League play-offs § League Two
EFL League Two final table, leading positions
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Stockport County (C, P) 46 27 11 8 96 48 +48 92
2 Wrexham (P) 46 26 10 10 89 52 +37 88
3 Mansfield Town (P) 46 24 14 8 90 47 +43 86
4 Milton Keynes Dons 46 23 9 14 83 68 +15 78
5 Doncaster Rovers 46 21 8 17 73 68 +5 71
6 Crewe Alexandra 46 19 14 13 69 65 +4 71
7 Crawley Town 46 21 7 18 73 67 +6 70
Source: EFL Official Website
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted

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.[3] 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.[4] 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.[5]

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.[3] 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.[6] 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.[7]

Match

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Background

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The two finalists played each other twice during the regular season, with Crewe winning both of the matches: a 4–2 victory at Broadfield Stadium in October 2023, followed by a 2–0 scoreline in the Mornflake Stadium in February 2024.[8] Elliott Nevitt was the highest scorer for Crewe with 16 league goals during the season while Danilo Orsi was Crawley's top marksman with 19 goals during the league campaign.[9]

The match was Crawley Town's first appearance at Wembley in their 128-year history, and their first play-off final.[10][11][12] Crewe had appeared in three play-offs finals previously, two at the old Wembley Stadium and one at the new stadium. They lost the 1993 Football League Third Division play-off final against York City in a penalty shootout, defeated Brentford 1–0 in the 1997 Football League Second Division play-off final and then prevailed in the 2012 Football League Two play-off final against Southend United.[13][14] Crawley were allocated 19,556 tickets for the western end of Wembley Stadium and a maximum of 38,676 tickets, if required.[15] Crewe Alexandra were allocated 38,693 tickets for the eastern end of the ground.[16]

The referee for the match was Ben Toner. The assistant referees were Darren Williams and Paul Newhouse with Hugh Gilroy as a reserve, the fourth official was Lewis Smith. Michael Salisbury and Constantine Hatzidakis were named as the video assistant referee (VAR) and assistant video assistant referee respectively.[17]

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.[18] 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.[19][20][21] Talksport 2 provided national radio commentary.[18]

Match

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The match kicked off at 1:30 p.m. in front of a crowd 33,341[22] Crawley dominated possession in the early part of the match, but there were few chances for either side.[23][24] Kelly had a shot from outside the area on 15 minutes which went high and wide, followed by a shot from inside the penalty area which was stopped by Crewe goalkeeper Max Stryjek.[23][25] Klaidi Lolos had a shot from outside the penalty area on 29 minutes, which was also saved.[25] Crewe began to enjoy greater possession after this and had shots from Conor Thomas, which went wide, and a good chance from Elliott Nevitt whose short from outside of the penalty area was saved by Crawley goalkeeper Corey Addai in the bottom corner of his goal.[23][25] Crawley took the lead on 41 minutes when Orsi and Kelly played a one-two before Orsi scored, shooting with the outside of his foot.[23] They had chances to extend this lead in the run up to half-time, Kelly having a right-footed shot inside the penalty area blocked and Laurence Maguire and Lolos then missing efforts. The half ended with Crawley ahead 1–0.[25]

Crewe were awarded a penalty seven minutes into the second-half, when the referee deemed that Addai had fouled Chris Long who was through on goal after a defensive error. The VAR intervened, however, finding that the goalkeeper had made contact with the ball, and the decision was reversed.[23] With half an hour remaining, there were two chances for Crawley – Kellan Gordon and Lolos both having shots saved – followed by a shot outside the penalty area from Crewe's Aaron Rowe, which was also blocked.[25] Ten minutes later, Crawley's Ronan Darcy, who had come on as a substitute, sliced a shot wide of the goal.[26] Kelly added a second goal for Crawley in the 85th minute when Dion Conroy's forward run and 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.[23] There were 11 minutes of stoppage time at the end of the match, during which Crewe had two attempts to pull a goal back, through Charlie Kirk and Ed Turns, while Orsi had a left-footed shot saved close to the end.[25] No further goals were scored, however, and Crawley returned to the third tier of English football for the first time since 2015.[23]

Details

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Crawley Town2–0Crewe Alexandra
Orsi 41'
L. Kelly 85'		 Report
Attendance: 33,341
Referee: Ben Toner (Lancashire)
Crawley Town
Crewe Alexandra
GK 1 England Corey Addai
CB 30 England Will Wright
CB 3 England Dion Conroy (c)
CB 6 England Laurence Maguire
RM 2 England Kellan Gordon downward-facing red arrow 65'
CM 26 England Jay Williams
CM 4 Republic of Ireland Liam Kelly 85'
LM 19 United States Jeremy Kelly downward-facing red arrow 90+3'
RW 8 Greece Klaidi Lolos downward-facing red arrow 90+3'
LW 28 England Adam Campbell downward-facing red arrow 55'
CF 9 England Danilo Orsi 41'
Substitutes:
MF 10 England Ronan Darcy upward-facing green arrow 55'
FW 22 England Ade Adeyemo upward-facing green arrow 65'
DF 25 Cyprus Nick Tsaroulla upward-facing green arrow 90+3'
MF 11 Cyprus Jack Roles upward-facing green arrow 90+3'
Head Coach:
England Scott Lindsey
GK 42 Poland Max Stryjek
RB 28 England Lewis Billington downward-facing red arrow 81'
CB 12 Wales Ed Turns
CB 5 England Mickey Demetriou (c)
LB 3 England Rio Adebisi Yellow card 59'
CM 8 England Conor Thomas downward-facing red arrow 65'
CM 11 England Joel Tabiner Yellow card 66' downward-facing red arrow 74'
RW 10 England Shilow Tracey downward-facing red arrow 64'
AM 21 England Aaron Rowe Yellow card 19'
LW 7 England Chris Long downward-facing red arrow 74'
CF 20 England Elliott Nevitt
Substitutes:
FW 9 England Courtney Baker-Richardson upward-facing green arrow 64'
MF 25 England Josh Austerfield upward-facing green arrow 65'
MF 30 England Charlie Kirk upward-facing green arrow 74'
MF 14 England Lewis Leigh upward-facing green arrow 74'
MF 17 Slovakia Matúš Holíček upward-facing green arrow 81'
Head Coach:
England Lee Bell
Statistics
Crawley Town F.C. Crewe Alexandra F.C.
Possession 63% 37%
Goals scored 2 0
Shots on target 7 3
Shots off target 5 3
Fouls committed 11 13
Corner kicks 6 1
Yellow cards 0 3
Red cards 0 0

Post-match

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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. [27]

References

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  1. ^ "EFL Key Dates". English Football League. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
  2. ^ "League Two Play-Off Finals". EFL.com. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
  3. ^ a b "EFL Sky Bet League Two table, results, fixtures, stats". EFL. 20 July 2023. Retrieved 11 May 2024.
  4. ^ "Crewe Alexandra vs Doncaster Rovers: English Football League". BBC Sport. 6 May 2024. Retrieved 11 May 2024.
  5. ^ "Crewe beat Doncaster in shootout to make play-off final". BBC Sport. 10 May 2024. Retrieved 11 May 2024.
  6. ^ "Crawley Town 3–0 MK Dons: Red Devils win League Two play-off semi-final first leg". BBC Sport. 7 May 2024. Retrieved 11 May 2024.
  7. ^ "League Two - Promotion Play-offs - Semi-finals". BBC Sport. 11 May 2024. Retrieved 11 May 2024.
  8. ^ "Crewe Alexandra football club: record v Crawley Town". 11v11.com. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
  9. ^ "League Two – 2023/24". Soccerbase. Centurycomm Limited. Archived from the original on 10 September 2024. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
  10. ^ Sexton, Daniel (17 May 2024). "A guide to Crawley Town's Wembley play-off final". BBC. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
  11. ^ "Crawley Town". Football Club History Database. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
  12. ^ "Crawley". Football Club History Database. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
  13. ^ Foster, pp. 203, 207
  14. ^ "Crewe Alexandra". Football Club History Database. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
  15. ^ "Crawley Town announce Sky Bet League Two play-off final ticket details". Crawley Town. 12 May 2024. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
  16. ^ "Sky Bet League Two Play-Off Final ticket information". Crewe Alexandra. 11 May 2024. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
  17. ^ EFL (16 May 2024). "All you need to know ahead of the Sky Bet League One & League Two Play-Off Finals". English Football League. Retrieved 10 August 2025. Michael Salisbury AVAR Constantine Hatzidakis
  18. ^ a b Harris, Alex (18 May 2024). "What channel is Crawley v Crewe League Two play-off final on? TV coverage, live stream and kick-off time". RadioTimes.com. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
  19. ^ "Sport on BBC Radio Stoke, The League Two play-off final: Crawley Town take on Crewe Alexandra (sorry not online)". BBC. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
  20. ^ "BBC Radio Sussex Sport, Crawley Town v Crewe Alexandra (19/05/2024)". BBC. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
  21. ^ "Sport on BBC Radio Surrey, Crawley Town v Crewe Alexandra (19/05/2024)". BBC. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
  22. ^ "Crawley 2-0 Crewe (19 May, 2024) Final Score - ESPN (UK)". ESPN. 19 May 2024. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
  23. ^ a b c d e f g Peddy, Chris (19 May 2024). "Crawley Town beat Crewe Alexandra to win promotion to League One". BBC Sport. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
  24. ^ "Crawley Town clinch promotion in Sky Bet League Two Play-Off Final". English Football League. 19 May 2024. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
  25. ^ a b c d e f "Crawley 2-0 Crewe (19 May, 2024) Commentary - ESPN (UK)". ESPN. 19 May 2024. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
  26. ^ Burnton, Simon (19 May 2024). "Liam Kelly clinches League One spot for Crawley with playoff defeat of Crewe". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 August 2025.
  27. ^ Sexton, Daniel (20 May 2024). "Crawley Town fans celebrate play-off win with team". BBC News. Retrieved 21 May 2024.