Football League One play-offs

The English Football League One Play-offs are a series of play-off matches, contested by the teams finishing from 3rd to 6th in the EFL League One table to determine the third spot for promotion to the second tier of English football, the Championship.

The latest team to win the League One Play-Offs were Barnsley F.C. defeating Millwall F.C. 3-1 at Wembley

The record attendance for a League One Play-off final at Wembley was the 1999 final, when Manchester City played Gillingham and the attendance stood at 76,935.

The current system of the League One play-offs uses two semi-finals played over two legs, with 6th playing 3rd and 5th playing 4th, with the return fixtures following. For the two-legged semi-finals, there is no away goals advantage such as those in the knock-out rounds of European competition. The Final is played at Wembley, although from 2001 to 2006, it was played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff while Wembley was being rebuilt.

Aside from the branding changes which affected English football in 1992 and 2004, the League One play-offs have also changed in format. The last alteration occurred in 1995, when the restructuring of the league meant 2nd to 5th contested the play-offs.

When they started in 1987, the play-offs originally featured a second-tier team and three third-tier clubs. This format was continued for 1988, but discontinued afterwards. The first winners of the playoffs at this level were Swindon Town, who were promoted to the Second Division in 1987 at the expense of Gillingham, who had already condemned Sunderland to the Third Division for the first time in their history.

A year later, Walsall were promoted, defeating Sheffield United, who were relegated as a result.

The final was originally held over two legs, but both the 1987 and 1988 finals went to a third match at Selhurst Park and Fellows Park respectively. In 1989, the playoffs were two-legged affairs featuring the third, fourth, fifth and sixth place teams, with Port Vale being the successful side on this occasion.

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