For those neutral fans up and down the English football pyramid as it spans across the country, if the Premier League race for Europe was not your thing last weekend, you would have undoubtedly tuned into the Championship, League One and League Two Play Off promotion finals for your football fix.
At Wembley on Saturday, the Championship results had the Black Cats of Sunderland coming out as 2-1 victors over Sheffield United as The Blades missed the chance to return to the top flight of English football despite the fact that they had a 1-0 advantage for much of the game.
It is a remarkable turn around in form over the last 12 months for the club, particularly as their side is far more youthful and inexperienced than many of those sides they beat off and many will be looing to see how they do next season as there is not a game of Premier League experience in their winning squad.
Sunday’s EFL League One games saw Charlton Athletic face off against Leyton Orient in an all London final and Macaulay Gillesphey’s first half free kick was ultimately all that stood between the sides when the full time whistle was blown.
Orient should be pleased with the season that they had, sneaking into that final Play Off spot with presumed bigger clubs falling below them in the table, particularly as back in November they were in the relegation places, but a five season wait for second tier football is now over for the Addicks who will themselves now be looking for a period of consolidation.
League Two Play-off Final
That brings us nicely to the Bank Holiday action and the national stadium clash between AFC Wimbledon and Walsall.
This final was also a single goal affair, with AFC Wimbledon coming out as winners courtesy of Myles Hippolyte’s first-half stoppage-time goal.
Walsall will certainly feel that they were unlucky on the day as striker, and skipper, Jamille Matt had his own effort cleared off the line.
Ultimately the Saddlers paid the biggest price possible for their drop off in form as back in January they were clear in top spot in the League Two table by 12 clear points.
It is seven straight seasons in the fourth tier for the Midlands side, whereas AFC Wimbledon return to the third tier for the first time since their relegation back in 2022.
2024/25 Campaign
Whilst the automatic promotion spots, and the relegation places always take most of the attention when we get into the business end of the varying tiers in the game, Championship standings always overshadow the two leagues below but the Play Off routes are always good for a story or two, and the 2024/25 campaign has been no different when you look at the eventual promotion winners and then those sides who fell away from potentially achieving better, to then only lose out in either the Final or even the Semi Final clashes.
As football goes into the summer lull before transfer window action takes over for a couple of months, one thing is for sure and that is come the big kick offs in August much of this will be forgotten about as we all begin again, like we do every year where Premier League and Championship live scores take precedence.
League One and League Two stories will still filter through though, and sometimes despite being at the lower level, the action can be even more enthr
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