Will it be Blackpool or Exeter City who make it to next season’s League One following Sunday’s Wembley play-off final?

The League Two semi-finals were absolutely ridiculous; both ended 6-5 on aggregate and both went down to the wire. Blackpool, who finished in 7th place on 70 points, took on 4th place Luton in their fixture, winning the 1st leg 3-2 thanks to a hat-trick from Mark Cullen.



The Seasiders were pushed hard in the 2nd leg, however, with Luton at one point being up 3-1. Yet Armand Gnanduillet made it 3-2 three quarters of the way through the tie, before an own goal from goalkeeper Stuart Moore sent the Hatters crashing out of the play-offs in the 5th minute of injury time.

Exeter has a similarly torrid semi-final journey, one reflective of their 2016/17 as a whole. For the first 3 and a half months of the season the Grecians were in, or around, the relegation zone, losing 11 of their opening 17 games. However, manager Paul Tisdale presided over a truly remarkable turnaround, Exeter climbing higher and higher until they ended up, somehow, in 5th place.

That set up a play-off against Carlisle, who had finished in 6th place thanks to a worse goal difference than their Devonshire opponents. Exeter threw away a 3-1 lead in the 1st leg to allow Carlisle to draw things level, and then almost did the same in the return fixture, with goals from Jason Kennedy and John O’Sullivan leaving the tie at 2-2 (and 5-5 on aggregate) by the 90th minute. However, just like in the other semi-final, everything was decided in the 95th minute, with Jack Stacey sending the Grecians to Wembley.

If the semi-finals are anything to go by Sunday’s final could be insane. Blackpool just about have the edge in regards to past form, beating Exeter 2-0 in the first game of the season before the latter nabbed a last-gasp 2-2 draw at home back in February. However, the Grecians did finish the season a couple of places higher than their opponents, and head to Wembley with a narrow Exeter/Blackpool (h) Goal Supremacy spread of 0.05-0.25 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.6-2.8.