THIS Bank Holiday Monday, AFC Wimbledon and Walsall will face off at the home of English football, Wembley Stadium, with a place in EFL League One next season on the line.
Walsall, who led the EFL League Two by 12 points at the start of 2025, will be hoping to put their missed automatic promotion behind them come Monday.
The Saddlers missed out on third place on the final day of the season after Bradford City won their respective game with the last kick of the game.
Matt Sadlers team ended their 13 game winless streak in the last game of the season too, but this was not enough in the end.
Since then they are now on a three game winning streak after defeating Chesterfield 2-1 and 0-2. The West Midlands team will be hoping to extend this streak to make their return to League One for the first time in five years.
Johnnie Jackson’s Wimbledon side finished fifth only four points off their play-off rivals Walsall.
Similarly to Walsall they won their last game of the season and both legs of their play-off semi final 0-1 and 1-0 against Notts County.
Before this impressive run, the Dons had won just one of their previous eight league matches.
Now, like Walsall, the Wombles are aiming for a fourth consecutive victory. And a return to League One for the first time in three years.
📊 Our #EFLPlayOffs Finalists' league season in numbers 👇#EFL | #StepUp pic.twitter.com/JvplhD3E7k
— Sky Bet League Two (@SkyBetLeagueTwo) May 19, 2025
Mat Sadler and Johnnie Jackson: The two managers
Both managers are still very much at the start of their managerial careers with both Matt Sadler and Johnnie Jackson looking to add a promotion to their CV’S for the first time.
Mat Sadler
Sadler was appointed as head coach after being an integral part of the coaching team for three seasons before his appointment in 2023.
Walsall have constantly improved under Sadler finishing 16th, 11th and now 4th making it the closest they have come to promotion since their relegation from league one five years ago.
Both managers play a similar style formation with a flat back three. Sadler’s centre backs are extremely important to the way they play with Taylor Allen constantly pushing up the pitch into midfield.
Key Walsall player: Taylor Allen
Taylor Allen has been a key player for Walsall this season with 17 goal contributions from defence this season in the league.
The 24 year old has scored ten and set up seven which includes direct free kicks and two penalties.
Allen already knows the feeling to be promoted from League Two when he won the league in the 2021/2022 season with Forest Green.
Johnnie Jackson
Johnnie Jackson was appointed as Wimbledon manager in 2022, following a year at Charlton Athletic, where he initially began as caretaker manager.
Just like Sadler’s Walsall team Wimbledon have continually improved under Jackson’s reign.
Jackson’s side have finished 21st, 10th and 5th and this season his side had the best defensive record in the league only conceding 35 goals.
The Dons also deploy a flat back three line that are defensively solid giving a helping hand to one of their star players Ryan Goodman.
Ryan Goodman
Goodman, who is on loan from Crystal Palace, has kept the joint most clean sheets in the league this season.
The 21 year old even kept two more clean sheets in the play-off semi finals in both legs against Notts County.
The Crystal palace loanee, who has one cap for England’s U20 team, will be hoping to do the same come the bank holiday Monday.
Head to Head records
With only four points separating the two sides in the league this season, it is clear that we can expect a close affair in the final.
The two meetings between the sides this season further highlight how little separates the West Midlands outfit and their South West London counterparts.
When the teams last met the game ended 1-1 with Omar Bugiel putting the Dons 1-0 , Bugiel unfortunately got injured before the first play-off game and is believed to still be out for the final.
The equalizer came straight from a Taylor Allen free-kick in the 87th minute of the game.
Walsall won the first meeting between the two sides this season thanks to a Nathan Alexander Lowe strike that beat Goodman.
Lowe was recalled back to his parent club Stoke City in January and has since hardly played, despite being Walsalls top goal scorer with 15 goals in 22 matches.
Both teams will be looking for a hero on Monday to try and separate the two tightly matched teams but what team will this come from?
Well, you can find out on the Solent Sports News website where there will be live coverage posted during the game as well as a match report of the game at full time.
You can also get live updates during the game on our social media accounts.
