Sunday 27th May 1500hrs Rotherham United v Shrewsbury Football – England – League One Playoff Final Most eyes will be on one final at Wembley over this bank holiday weekend but when all the shouting over the Championship playoff final is done, attention will quickly turn to the two teams competing for a place in that very division. Rotherham are looking to bounce back at the first time of asking and face a Shrewsbury team who have continued to surprise everybody throughout the campaign. The Shrews were the only club who remotely looked like challenging Blackburn and Wigan for automatic promotion but that will count for little now with 90 minutes the only thing between both clubs in their pursuit of glory.
Paul Warne deserves great credit for turning things around as quickly as he has done at Rotherham. Having finished rock bottom of the Championship in 2016/17, the club stuck by Warne who had only been in post since November that season and that decision looks to have paid dividends. From winning only five games the season before, Rotherham finished fourth in League One and are now only one game away from returning to England’s second tier. A very strong middle part of the season set them up to finish in the playoffs as they went unbeaten for a run of 15 games between the 9th of December and the 24th of February. Their home record was also a huge strength over the course of the season as they won 15 games – no team in the league won more at home in League One. That home record will count for little of course at a neutral venue on Sunday but they head into it in good spirits having lost only two of their 10 games. They seen off a spirited Scunthorpe team in the playoff semi final, winning the second leg 2-0 at home having drawn the first leg 2-2.
Shrewsbury were by far and a way the best of the rest after the big two – Blackburn and Wigan – comfortably secured the two automatic promotion spots. It was some achievement considering the Shrews finished in 18th spot last year having flirted with relegation for the most part of the campaign. Those days are long gone now, though, and Paul Hurst is looking to complete a huge surprise by winning another game on Sunday where they will be underdogs. It could have been very different, of course, had Shrewsbury finished the campaign stronger. Hurst’s men won only one of their last seven games in the regular season which handed the initiative to the clubs ahead of them. They did recover well to see off Charlton in the semi final playoff. They won both games 1-0 and having had the second best defence in the league all season, that sort of result should probably come as no surprise. Their defence was the basis for their success this season and they will hope they can turn in another solid performance on Sunday.
Rotherham United v Shrewsbury Betting Tip
Neither of these teams would have expected to be playing in this final had you asked them a year ago but they’ve managed to respond very well to their disappointments of last year. Shrewsbury, as alluded to above, were in contention for automatic promotion for much of the season and it’s sometimes difficult for teams then to change their mindset and get focussed on the playoffs – especially when coming up against teams who have preparing for this post season for some time. It didn’t appear to affect Shrewsbury too much against Charlton and they’ll hope they can now negotiate what, in all likelihood, will be a more difficult match with Rotherham. For the Yorkshire club, this will be the second time in four years where they have been competing in the League One playoff final. Their last visit was a successful one when defeating Leyton Orient on penalties. I’m sure nobody involved would like to go through the mill to the same degree on Sunday but if it means promotion I’m sure they’ll accept it.
Shrewsbury finished the season eight points better off then they opposition they meet in the final and interestingly, the two games between the clubs went the way of the away team. There was only one goal in it on both occasions which suggests Saturday may well be another tight affair. With that in mind, I think the best selection is for this to require extra time and possibly even penalties, so take the draw after 90 minutes.
Draw 12/5 @ Bet Victor
