.jpg) Rickie Lambert taking a free kick in the final | |||||||
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| Date | 26 May 2007 | ||||||
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| Venue | Wembley Stadium, London | ||||||
| Referee | Mike Jones | ||||||
| Attendance | 61,589 | ||||||
←2006 2008 → | |||||||
The2007 Football League Two play-off final was anassociation football match which was on 26 May 2007 atWembley Stadium, London, betweenBristol Rovers andShrewsbury Town to determine the fourth and final team to gainpromotion fromFootball League Two toFootball League One. The top two teams of the2006–07 Football League Two season gained automatic promotion to League One, while those placed from third to sixth in the table partook in play-off semi-finals; the winners of these semi-finals competed for the final place for the2007–08 season in League One.
Bristol Rovers had reached the play-off final in their sixth season back in the fourth tier of English football, having been relegated from the Second Division (equivalent of League One) in the2000–01 season and Shrewsbury in their third season, after their promotion from theFootball Conference in the2003–04 season. The 2007 final was watched by a crowd of 61,589 people, a record for a fixture played at the fourth tier of English football, and refereed byMike Jones. Shrewsbury opened the scoring throughStewart Drummond who scored after three minutes from aNeil Ashtonfree kick.Richard Walker levelled the match midway through the first half when he scored from aRyan Greencross. Ten minutes before half-time, Walker scored his and Bristol Rovers' second goal after running clear andchipping the ball overChris Mackenzie, the Shrewsbury Towngoalkeeper. Shrewsbury were reduced to ten players whenMarc Tierney wassent off near the end of the match for twoyellow cards beforeSammy Igoe scored into an empty goal to give Bristol Rovers a 3–1 victory and promotion to League One.
Shrewsbury Town ended the next season in eighteenth position, eight points above the relegation zone. Bristol Rovers finished sixteenth in League One, five points above the relegation zone, keeping their place in the third tier.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Walsall | 46 | 25 | 14 | 7 | 66 | 34 | +32 | 89 |
| 2 | Hartlepool United | 46 | 26 | 10 | 10 | 65 | 40 | +25 | 88 |
| 3 | Swindon Town | 46 | 25 | 10 | 11 | 58 | 38 | +20 | 85 |
| 4 | Milton Keynes Dons | 46 | 25 | 9 | 12 | 76 | 58 | +18 | 84 |
| 5 | Lincoln City | 46 | 21 | 11 | 14 | 70 | 59 | +11 | 74 |
| 6 | Bristol Rovers | 46 | 20 | 12 | 14 | 49 | 42 | +7 | 72 |
| 7 | Shrewsbury Town | 46 | 18 | 17 | 11 | 68 | 46 | +22 | 71 |
Bristol Rovers finished the regular2006–07 season in sixth position inFootball League Two, the fourth tier of theEnglish football league system, one place and one point ahead ofShrewsbury Town. Both therefore missed out on the three automatic places forpromotion toFootball League One and instead took part in theplay-offs to determine the fourth promoted team. Bristol Rovers finished thirteen points behindSwindon Town (who were promoted in third place), sixteen behindHartlepool United (who were promoted in second place), and seventeen behind league winnersWalsall.[1]
Shrewsbury Town facedMilton Keynes Dons in their play-off semi-final with the first match of thetwo-legged tie being played atGay Meadow in Shrewsbury on 14 May 2007. In what was Shrewsbury's final game at the stadium after 97 years, Milton Keynes Dons dominated the majority of the proceedings and although the home side ended strongly, the final score was 0–0.[2] The second leg took place four days later at theNational Hockey Stadium in Milton Keynes.[3] After a goalless first half, Shrewsbury Town brought onAndy Cooke as asubstitute at half-time and he put his side ahead in the 58th minute after running onto a pass fromDanny Hall to score. With sixteen minutes remaining,Keith Andrews equalised after his initialheader was saved byScott Shearer. Cooke scored his and his side's second goal less than two minutes later and the match ended 2–1, with Shrewsbury Town progressing to the final with the sameaggregate score.[4]
Bristol Rovers went into the play-offs having won seven and drawn two of their last eleven games.[5] Their opponents for the other play-off semi-final wereLincoln City and the first leg was held at theMemorial Stadium in Bristol on 14 May 2007.Craig Disley opened the scoring for the home side on ten minutes when headed in across fromRickie Lambert pastAlan Marriott, the Lincoln City goalkeeper.Jeff Hughes equalised for Lincoln City in the 31st minute when he struck hisfree kick into the top-right corner of the Bristol Rovers goal. Nine minutes into the second half,Richard Walker scored with avolley fromSteve Elliott's free kick to give Bristol Rovers the lead which they held to win the match 2–1.[6] The second leg was played three days later atSincil Bank in Lincoln.[7]Stuart Campbell scored in the third minute for Bristol Rovers with a long-range strike and Lambert volleyed past Marriott to make it 2–0 eight minutes later. Hughes scored fromJamie Forrester's cross midway through the first half to reduce Lincoln City's deficit before Walker made it 3–1 nine minutes before half time.Mark Stallard scored for Lincoln City seven minutes later with a half-volley but a second-halfSammy Igoe goal made it 4–2 to Bristol Rovers in the 82nd minute.Sean Rigg then made it 5–2 in the 90th minute before Hughes scored his second to ensure the match ended 5–3 and Bristol Rovers progressed to the final with a 7–4 aggregate victory.[8]
This was Bristol Rovers' fourth appearance in the play-offs and their third final, having lost 2–1 on aggregate toPort Vale in the1989 Football League Third Division play-off final and being defeated 2–1 byHuddersfield Town in the1995 Football League Second Division play-off final. They had played in the fourth tier of English football after being relegated in the2000–01 season.[9] Shrewsbury Town were making their first appearance in theEnglish Football League play-offs but had earned promotion from theFootball Conference in the2003–04 season with apenalty shoot-out victory overAldershot Town inthe final. They had played in the fourth tier of English football since then, having last featured in the third tier in the1996–97 season.[10] The sides had faced one another three times during the regular season: in the league, Bristol Rovers won the match 1–0 at the Memorial Stadium in August 2006 while the game at Gay Meadow the following March ended in a goalless draw.[11] Between those matches, the sides met in the southern section semi-final of theFootball League Trophy where Bristol Rovers won 1–0 at Gay Meadow.[12]
Walker was Bristol Rovers' top scorer during the regular season with 19 goals (12 in the league, 4 in theFA Cup, 1 in theLeague Cup and 2 in the Football League Trophy).[13] The leading scorer for Shrewsbury Town wasMichael Symes with a total of 13 goals (9 in the league, 4 in the Football League Trophy) whileBen Davies and Cooke both had a total of 12 goals.[14] TheRacing Post considered Bristol Rovers to be favourites to win the final, but theirmanagerPaul Trollope urged caution, noting "We probably are favourites because of the way we have gone into the final, but it is about producing a performance that is good enough to beat Shrewsbury because you don't win anything just by being favourites and turning up".[5]
The referee for the final wasMike Jones from Cheshire.[15] Shrewsbury Town's Davies was unavailable after sustaining anAchilles tendon injury in the semi-final, andgoalkeeper Shearer, on loan from Bristol Rovers, was ineligible to play against his own club.[16]Luke Jones was also out injured for Shrewsbury Town, having suffered a locked knee during the warm-up preceding the final.[5]Joe Jacobson's loan period had ended so he had returned toCardiff City from Bristol Rovers.[5] Both sides adopted a4–4–2 formation for the final.[16]
The matchkicked off around 3 p.m. on 26 May 2007 at Wembley Stadium in front of a crowd of 61,589.[17] Three minutes into the match, Shrewsbury Town took the lead:Neil Ashton's free-kick from the right was met byStewart Drummond with a glancing header which sent the ball Bristol Rovers goalkeeperSteve Phillips into the bottom corner of the goal. Ashton had an opportunity to equalise afterDerek Asamoah's cross was passed on byRyan Green but failed to connect with the ball. In the 21st minute, Green took the ball down the right wing before crossing for Walker who struck the ball first time pastChris Mackenzie in the Shrewsbury Town goal. Asamoah then found Cooke with a cross but the Shrewsbury striker was unable to convert the chance to score. With ten minutes of the half remaining,Lewis Haldane passed the ball down the left, and afterRichard Hope failed to make the interception, Walker took a controlling touch of the ball andlobbed it over MacKenzie to make it 2–1 before the interval.[18] Late in the second half, Shrewsbury Town'sMarc Tierney wassent off after being shown a secondyellow card following a latetackle on Campbell. Two minutes intostoppage time, Shrewsbury Town won acorner for which their goalkeeper MacKenzie came up the pitch. Bristol Rovers broke from the corner and Igoe was able to run with the ball before striking it into an empty goal. The match ended 3–1 to Bristol Rovers who were promoted to League One.[15]
| Bristol Rovers | 3–1 | Shrewsbury Town |
|---|---|---|
Walker 21',35'Igoe 90' | (Report) | Drummond 3' |
       Bristol Rovers |    Shrewsbury Town |
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The attendance of 61,589 was a record for the fourth tier play-off final and it was estimated inThe Guardian that more than 37,000 of the crowd were Bristol Rovers supporters.[19] Trollope, who had featured in three play-off semi-final defeats as a player, described the victory as "the greatest day of my career."[18] He did, however, note his belief that the two-goal margin of victory somewhat flattered his side. Walker said "I knew it was going to be the biggest game of my life ... We didn't doubt ourselves when they scored, we believed in our ability, we clawed our way back into the game and it was a fantastic thing to win."[20] He went on to express his summer holiday plans: "I'm going to drink for six weeks".[16]Gary Peters, the Shrewsbury Town manager, admitted "Had we had Walker on our side, it might have been different. They had two chances and took them, we had four and didn't put them away ... I think the season's caught up with us. We had four more games than anybody else."[20]
Shrewsbury Town ended the next season in 18th place, eight points above the relegation zone.[21] Bristol Rovers finished 16th in the2007–08 Football League One, five points above the relegation zone, keeping their place in the third tier.[22]
