Wanderers meet Stockport County at Wembley Stadium for Sunday afternoon’s Sky Bet League One Play-Off Final (kick-off 1pm), with promotion to the Sky Bet Championship the Whites’ reward if they can overcome the Hatters.
Steven Schumacher’s men reached the home of English football by defeating Bradford City over two legs in the semi-final. Xavier Simons’ well-taken second-half strike at Valley Parade secured a 1-0 win on the night in West Yorkshire and a 2-0 aggregate victory.
The stage is now set for another Wembley appearance for Wanderers, who are set to be cheered on by over 28,000 supporters in the capital as they aim to reach the second-tier for the first time in seven years.
Stockport, who finished two points and two places above Wanderers, sealed their place at Wembley after beating Stevenage in both legs, including a 2-0 triumph at Edgeley Park, with first-half strikes from Louie Barry and Kyle Wootton seeing Dave Challinor’s side advance 3-0 on aggregate.
The last meeting between the two Greater Manchester teams came in April, which ended in a 2-2 draw at the Toughsheet Community Stadium. Johnny Kenny’s 38th minute strike and Ben Osborn’s late own goal saw Wanderers share a point apiece with County.
Press Conferences:
Steven Schumacher
“We want to be in the mix, we want to try and get ourselves into the Championship. We feel as though we've earned this right to be in the last game of the season and now it's about trying to perform to the best of our ability and make sure that we get the job done.
“It will mean everything, it really will. It's been the objective since I came to the club, to try and get into the Championship, so it's going to mean so much. But we've got a lot of work to do. We know we're 90 minutes away, potentially, from achieving what we all set out to do and let's hope we can go and do it.
“Some have got positive experiences and others have had not positive experiences that they can learn from. We go there with a good mentality, a good frame of mind that we know that if we perform as well as we can, if we stick together as a group, then we've got enough in our squad to get the result that we all desperately want.
“It's a huge credit to the amount of fans that are going down. It's a Sunday, early kick-off at one o'clock, not easy to get to on a Bank Holiday weekend with train disruption all over the place, so for people travelling down we really appreciate it and we're going to do our best.”
Stockport County Manager, Dave Challinor
"It's the biggest step and the hardest step, but it's an opportunity, and that's all you can ask for.
"We'll take all the pats on the back for getting this far, but we now have the biggest game of the season in front of us, and it's about how we perform on that day.
"It's not lost on me how well everyone has done to get us to this situation, but I know that if things don't go our way and we don't get promoted, there's always going to be a sense of disappointment.
"We have a week leading into a game which is nice. It's a massive occasion to look forward to, but we're going there to win, and that's the most important thing."
Referee:
Josh Smith
Kick-Off:
Sunday, 1pm
Tickets/Wanderers TV:
Limited tickets remain available for Sunday’s Play-Off Final. Secure your seat and cheer on the lads under the Wembley arch against Stockport by clicking here. Please be aware that official Club Coach Travel has SOLD OUT. Thank you for your outstanding support.
Supporters can also purchase Wanderers TV audio passes and listen to full-match commentary from Wembley with Derek Clark and John McGinlay.
International supporters (selected countries only) can stream the game live. The Play-Off Final will be televised by Sky Sports.
To purchase your Wanderers TV audio pass, please click here.