It’s often tough for clubs to drop into the National League from the Football League. The fifth tier of English football can be so unforgiving.
Two clubs that have only relatively recently dropped into the National League, Oldham Athletic and Southend United, have taken steps closer to returning to the EFL over the last few nights by winning play-off eliminators.
Oldham hammer York to book play-off final spot
Oldham Athletic have gone through some traumatic years, as the Latics suffered relegation to the National League for the first time in their history in 2022. The team from Greater Manchester finished fifth in the table and earned a play-off spot.
However, before the play-off semi-finals came an eliminator against FC Halifax Town, who they swotted aside 4-0 at Boundary Park.
On Tuesday night, they travelled to York City, who had finished second in the table. The north west outfit were underdogs to book their final place, as they had finished 23 points behind the Yorkshire side in the regular season campaign.
As with most play-offs, it didn’t matter where both teams finished in the league, as Oldham swept to a 3-0 victory courtesy of goals from Joe Garner, Vimal Yoganathan and Joe Pritchard. Both Garner and Pritchard had also scored in the eliminator victory over Halifax earlier this month.
The victory secured Oldham’s first trip to Wembley for a final since they made it to the FA Cup in 1990.
Manager Mellon was understandably delighted by booking their Wembley date. The former Tranmere boss told the club’s website: “What I will say, and I mean this, every single player that I went to said to me ‘let’s go to Wembley and finish the job’,”
“We’ll go there and play very well and try to seal the deal.”
Southend United also looking for a return to the EFL
The team that Oldham will be facing in the play-off final will be Southend United. The Shrimpers finished seventh place in the National League table, beating eighth-place Gateshead to promotion by just a point.
Unlike Oldham, whose journey to the final was smooth, Southend’s has been much rockier. United needed extra time to defeat Rochdale 4-3 in their eliminator.
Their semi-final against Forest Green was even more dramatic. The game finished 1-1 after 90 minutes, and then went into extra time. It was advantage Forest Green early in extra-time courtesy of an Emmanuel Osadebe effort.
With just four minutes of extra time remaining, Jack Bridge struck to make it 2-2 and to send the game into penalties. In the lottery that is a penalty shootout, United held their nerve and recorded a 4-2 victory in the shootout.
Southend have a more recent memory of Wembley, as they played at the national stadium in the 2015 League Two promotion play-off.
That day, they defeated Wycombe Wanderers via a penalty shootout to book themselves a place in English football’s third tier.
United will be looking for a less nervy encounter at Wembley than the last time, although they would obviously take going up to the fourth tier, even if it meant another nerve-wrecking shootout.
Both clubs’ history suggests that they should be in the EFL
When you look at the history of both teams, history suggests that they should be playing in the English Football League. However, in football, nothing is a given.
You have to earn the right to achieve relative success, with promotion being success for both of these teams, even if they were not the best teams in the regular campaign.
Oldham is the only club since the First Division was rebranded to the Premier League in 1992 to drop out of the Football League. They know they can’t take anything for granted, and that there is still work to be done to ensure their return to the EFL.
Southend have not really excelled in the National League since suffering relegation from League Two in 2021. The play-off final on June 1st represents the golden opportunity for the Shrimpers to earn a return to where they will feel they rightfully belong.
Whatever happens in the play-off final on 1st June at Wembley, one club with a big history in the EFL will be playing in League Two next season, which is certainly no bad thing at all.