Date 29 May 2011 Referee Steve Tanner | Man of the Match Grant McCann Attendance 48,410 | |
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Event 2010–11 Football League One Venue Old Trafford, Manchester | ||
The 2011 Football League One play-off final was a football match contested by Huddersfield Town and Peterborough United on 29 May 2011 at Old Trafford to decide the third team to be promoted from League One to the Championship for the 2011–12 season.
Contents
Under League One play-off rules, the final is contested by the two teams which secured an aggregate victory over two-legged semi-finals, with the team that finished sixth in the league table (Bournemouth) having played third (Huddersfield Town), and fifth (Milton Keynes Dons) having played fourth (Peterborough United).
Peterborough United won the match by a scoreline of 3–0, with goals from Tommy Rowe, Craig Mackail-Smith and Grant McCann in the later stages of the second half.
Venue controversy
Due to the UEFA Champions League 2011 final being held at Wembley Stadium on 28 May 2011, it appeared that the three Football League play-off finals may have to be played at a different venue for the first time since 2007 due to the double-booking of Wembley.
Manchester United's Old Trafford had been confirmed as a possible alternative, while Arsenal's Emirates Stadium and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff were also said to be under consideration to host the Championship, League One and League Two play-off finals.
It was later confirmed that Wembley would host the Championship play-off final on 30 May, while Old Trafford would host the League Two and League One finals on 28 and 29 May respectively.
Route to the final
The two-legged semi-finals determined that the final will be contested by Huddersfield Town and Peterborough United.
Second legs
Huddersfield Town 4–4 Bournemouth on aggregate. Huddersfield Town won 4–2 on penalties.
Peterborough United won 4–3 on aggregate.
Pre-match
A victory would see Huddersfield Town return to the second tier of English football for the first time since the 2000-01 season. The Terriers went into the final unbeaten in twenty-three games in all competitions, including thirteen wins. Manager Lee Clark saw his team finish ninth and sixth in the two seasons prior to concluding the 2010-11 campaign in third place. This was Huddersfield's sixth venture in the play-offs and their second consecutive; the two years that they reached the final (1995 and 2004) they secured promotion.
For Peterborough United, a final win would mean an immediate return to the Championship, having spent only one of their last seventeen seasons in League One. The London Road club were the top-scoring club in the country this campaign, with 106 goals (their 46 league games generated a total of 181 goals, or 3.93 per game). Manager Darren Ferguson, who returned in January 2011, two years after leaving them at the end of the first managerial appointment of his career, will oversee his club's third play-off campaign; 1992 and 2000 were both successful attempts at promotion via the play-offs for the eastern England side.
Summary
Despite the form of both teams, the match appeared to be heading for extra-time until the 78th minute when Peterborough's Tommy Rowe broke the deadlock when he flicked a header in from a Grant McCann free-kick. Two minutes later, Craig Mackail-Smith's shot deflected in off Antony Kay, and any remaining Huddersfield hopes were dashed when McCann curled in an 85th-minute free-kick to seal Town's first league defeat of 2011 and United's third play-off success in as many attempts. McCann also became the first player to win three play-off finals at three different stadiums, with three different clubs, having already won at the Millennium Stadium with Cheltenham in 2006 and at Wembley with Scunthorpe in 2009.