ROTHERHAM UNITED v SHREWSBURY TOWN
Sunday 27th May 2018 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
Football – England – League One Betting Tips
Returning to the domestic front, and Wembley Stadium once again provides the backdrop this weekend to the climax of the League One and League Two seasons respectively as the play-off finals will determine the final promotion spots for next season.
For both Rotherham United and Shrewsbury Town, Sunday’s play-off final represents the 49th match of what has been a tough and gruelling season and they’re both just 90 minutes away from being promoted to the Championship.
Starting with Rotherham, The Millers secured their place in the final with a 4-2 aggregate win over a spirited Scunthorpe United side who just wouldn’t lie down, but the second leg seemed to eventually sort things out with Rotherham finishing the stronger of the two sides.
Rotherham finished the regular League One season in fourth place, but at one point, they seemed to be on course for an automatic promotion spot as they’d put together an amazing run of results from mid-December through to late February which saw The millers unbeaten in 14 matches, which included no fewer than 11 wins.
However, they were unable to keep that momentum going as they then registered just one win from their subsequent six league matches which resulted in them losing ground on Wigan Athletic and Blackburn Rovers, but they did record five further wins from their last eight matches of the season to consolidate their play-off place, which is testament to Paul Warne’s boys’ resilience.
Rotherham’s away record ended up on 9-4-10 28/30 and this was perhaps their achilles heel as they’d managed just two wins from their last eight matches on their travels (including the play-offs). Midfielder Newell (8 goals) caught the eye during the play-offs and he’ll no doubt support forward Smith (6 goals), with the help of Vaulks (6 goals) and Taylor and Towell (5 goals apiece).
Onto Shrewsbury Town, and for the majority of the season it seemed that the Salop outfit were about to ignore the League One script by securing promotion ahead of the highly fancied third tier giants, Wigan Athletic and Blackburn Rovers, as The Shrews embarked upon an unbeaten run of 15 matches to start their campaign off in style.
Autumn also threatened to de-rail Shrewsbury’s promotion hopes as they’d lost three matches out of four and managed just one win which, ironically, was a 2-1 win away at Rotherham United, but again The Shrews bounced back with a run of ten league matches with just one defeat.
In late January though, a sequence of four home matches without a win which included losses to Plymouth Argyle and Rotherham United, virtually did for their automatic promotion ambitions as they too lost ground on both Wigan and Blackburn who were relentless in their pursuit of promotion, and Shrewsbury had to make do with a very creditable third place finish, which many of their fans would have bitten the proverbial hand off if offered this at the start of the season!
Shrewsbury’s away record finished up on a strong 11-8-4 28/22 with just one defeat from their last ten away matches of the season, and they too possess some key attacking personnel in the shape of midfielder Nolan (10 goals) along with forwards Payne (11 goals), Whalley (8 goals) and Morris (7 goals).
This is expected to be a tight and hard fought duel, and while my heart says Shrewsbury, my head says Rotherham United to gain promotion to the second tier today.
Pick: Rotherham United to win @ 2.40 Marathonbet
