The League Two season comes to a climax at Old Trafford as Stevenage and Torquay battle for promotion in the play-off final. It is a battle of two over-achieving teams and here is our guide to Saturday’s game.
Stevenage (6/4 to win) have had an incredible first season in the Football League and back-to-back promotions would be some achievement for their ambitious boss Graham Westley.
If you look back to January they sat 18th in the League Two and it has been some turnaround since then. A run of nine wins in 11 games catapulted them up the league as they timed their run to perfection and secured a sixth-placed finish.
Boro then won both legs against Accrington Stanley and looked assured in both games – though Stanley were reduced to nine men in the second half to make life a little easier for Stevenage as they were leading the tie 2-0 on aggregate by that point.
Substitute Chris Beardsley (7/1 to be first goalscorer at Old Trafford) got the only goal of the second leg to continue Boro’s impressive recent form and make it 11 wins from 13 games over recent months.
Torquay (13/8 to win the game) were many people’s picks to be relegated before the start of the season so it is a major shock to see them 90 minutes away from playing League One football come September.
Paul Buckle worked wonders to get the Gulls into the play-offs, as they sneaked in by the skin of their necks on goal difference on the final day of the season. A failure to win in their final five league games and a one-point deduction for errors with Jake Robinson’s registration threatened to ruin their play-off chances but they sneaked in.
Even then they were not given much chance against a Shrewsbury side that finished 11 points ahead of them in the table and were very unlucky not to go up automatically – themselves only missing out in the final game.
Goals from Chris Zebroski (11/2 to score the first goal) and Eunan O’Kane gave Torquay an advantage at Plainmoor and then a second-leg stalemate secured a long trip to Old Trafford for their most famous fan, Soccer AM’s Helen Chamberlain, and the rest of the Gulls’ West Country faithful.
It is a clash of two of the most respected managers in League Two at Old Trafford as both Westley and Buckle have achieved big things on tiny budgets this season. Both bosses have led their respective sides out of the Blue Square Premier in recent years and you have to wonder if League One might be a step too far for both Stevenage and Torquay.
The records show that Stevenage have never beaten Torquay in the six previous clashes between the sides. Four wins for the Gulls and two draws mean Torquay sit in pole position going into the game and the most recent meeting between them saw Buckle’s side record a 2-0 win at Plainmoor in March. (11/1 for Torquay to win final 2-0).
It should be an entertaining clash at Old Trafford between two teams that play attractive football by League Two standards, but Torquay are just likely to have the edge on Boro and should be celebrating promotion on Saturday afternoon.
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