The 2021 EFL League Two play-off Final was an association football match that took place at 15:00 BST on 31 May 2021 at Wembley Stadium, London, to determine the fourth and final team to gain promotion from League Two, the fourth tier of English football, to League One. The top three teams of League Two gain automatic promotion to League One, while the clubs placed from third to sixth place in the table take part in play-offs. The winners of the play-off semi-finals compete against each other for the final place for the 2021–22 season in League One.
The match was contested by Morecambe, who finished 4th and narrowly missed out on automatic promotion by one point, and Newport County, who finished 5th. It ended 1–0 to the former after a controversial penalty was converted by Carlos Mendes Gomes in extra time.
Morecambe faced seventh-place finishers Tranmere Rovers in the semifinals, defeating them 1–2 in the away leg and notching a 1–1 draw at home, sending them through on a 3–2 aggregate win. Newport matched up against sixth-place Forest Green Rovers, winning the first leg at home, 2–0, before a 4–3 loss in extra time in the away leg nevertheless sent them through on a 5–4 aggregate score.
This is Morecambe's first appearance in a League Two final; their previous appearance in the playoff was in 2009–10, when they lost in the semifinals. Their last appearance at Wembley Stadium was in the 2007 Conference National play-off Final, where they defeated Exeter City 2-1 to earn a spot in the EFL. Newport played in the 2019 EFL League Two play-off Final where they lost 1–0 after extra time to Tranmere Rovers. They were playing in the Football League Third Division – now League One – as recently as 1987, but were relegated and went out of business soon after, being reformed in 1989.
Background
Newport won the two meetings between the teams in the 2020–21 season, 2–1 at home and 1–3 away; both matches saw red cards given to Morecambe.
Yann Songo'o
107' (pen.)
