James Mason takes a look at the teams competing for a place in League One and makes his pick for promotion.
Doncaster Rovers, Port Vale and Bradford City have all confirmed their places in League One for next season, but the fourth and final promotion spot from League Two will be decided via the playoffs, which get underway in the fourth tier this weekend.
After the disappointment of missing out on automatic promotion in dramatic circumstances on the final day, Walsall must dust themselves down and go again.
Chesterfield, meanwhile, will be delighted to have made the end-of-season drama after sneaking into the top seven on the final day, keeping their hopes of securing back-to-back promotions alive.
AFC Wimbledon and Notts County each had automatic promotion claims during the campaign, but both will hope to succeed in the play-offs as they eye returns to the third tier after three and 10-year absences respectively.
Here, we take at the League Two play-off football betting market and pick out our best bet.
Best Bet
Chesterfield to be promoted 3/1
Momentum firmly with Spireites
Chesterfield’s hopes of promotion had seemingly disappeared after a disappointing winter, but they rallied in the spring, with only the eventual top two, Doncaster and Port Vale, accumulating more points over the final 13 matches of the regular season.
Despite that form, the Spireites were still unlikely to break into the top seven on the final day, but as Salford City and Grimsby Town faltered, a 1-0 win at Accrington Stanley helped Paul Cook’s side gate crash the play-off party.
With momentum on their side, Chesterfield will fancy their chances of getting the better of Walsall, who imploded over the second half of the season, in the play-off semi-finals.
That would set up a final against either AFC Wimbledon or Notts County, and after taking four points off both of those teams during the regular season, Chesterfield may take some stopping at Wembley.
More heartache expected for Walsall
It has certainly been a campaign of two halves for Walsall, who appeared to be running away with the title, never mind securing automatic promotion, in mid-January, but the departure of top scorer Nathan Lowe was the catalyst for their season unravelling.
After accumulating 54 points from their opening 25 games, the Saddlers added only 23 more across their final 21 matches of the regular season, but even then it looked like they had still done enough to snatch the final automatic promotion spot on the final day.
After beating Crewe Alexandra 1-0, ending a 13-game winless run in the process, Walsall could only watch on as Bradford scored a 96th-minute winner against Fleetwood Town to knock Mat Sadler’s side back out of the top three.
Recovering from that disappointment, coupled with their poor second half of the season, means it is difficult to see Walsall going again in the play-offs.
Scoring power can get Magpies to Wembley
Neither AFC Wimbledon or Notts County ended the regular season in the best of form, the former winning just two of their final nine games and the latter one in six.
That should make supporters of both sides nervous, but Stuart Maynard’s Notts outfit may have enough attacking threat to edge this semi-final tie, as they arguably boast the best forward pairing in the division.
Alassana Jatta (19) and the evergreen David McGoldrick (17) scored 36 League Two goals between them during the regular campaign and they can hurt even Wimbledon’s backline – the Dons boasted the division’s meanest defence after 46 matches.
A Chesterfield vs Notts County final may well be on the cards, but preference is for the 7/2 Spireites to make a return to League One.
- SCCG Management. The Gambling Industry’s Global Connector. Access Here.
- Source: https://blog.betway.com/football/football-league/league-two-play-off-outright-tips-2025/
