Barnsley and Sheffield Wednesday face off in the League One play-off final this afternoon.
A turbulent League One season comes to an end this afternoon as Barnsley and Sheffield Wednesday meet in the play-off final. The winner will join Plymouth Argyle and Ipswich Town in the Championship, while the loser will be condemned to another campaign of third-tier football.
Barnsley make their way to Wembley hoping to bounce back to the second-tier at the first time of asking. They made an indifferent start to the season as the squad got settled into Michael Duff’s ways but since then, it’s been a strong campaign for the Tykes.
They finished the regular season in 4th and overcame Bolton Wanderers to book their place in the final.
As for Sheffield Wednesday, they went on a club record unbeaten run of 23 league games only for automatic promotion to slip out of their hands after a dismal run. It seemed they were destined for failure in the play-offs too after a thumping 4-0 loss to Peterborough United in the first leg of their play-off.
However, a historic comeback saw them win 5-1 on the night, then winning on penalties to send Hillsborough into raptures.
Now, ahead of the final, one of our writers makes their score prediction…
James Ray
“This is such a hard game to call but after that play-off semi-final, I just can’t see Sheffield Wednesday losing this now. Their morale has to be on such a high and while the same can be said for Barnsley, I don’t think the jubilation of Wednesday’s win over Posh can be matched.
“Barnsley won both ties over Wednesday earlier this season though and they were the side to end their huge unbeaten run in March, so the Tykes will be out to overcome Moore’s side once again.
“I can see goals in this but as touched on before, the belief in the Wednesday group must be so strong now. It’ll be hard to go against that. I’m predicting a fairytale ending for the Owls.”
Score prediction: Barnsley 2-3 Sheffield Wednesday
