Following the majority decision by all member clubs to end the League Two season, all eyes in the fourth tier of English football will now focus towards the playoffs, which will still take place to decide the final promotion place. The campaign has now finished with Stevenage being relegated to the National League, while Swindon Town have been promoted to League One as champions alongside Crewe Alexandra and Plymouth Argyle. The decision will no doubt have left the likes of Port Vale and Bradford City, who were each one and four points off of a playoff place.
Sitting from fourth to seventh and thus in the playoff semi-finals are Cheltenham Town, Exeter City, Colchester United and Northampton Town, who will now all be scrapping it out for the final promotion place to League One for the 2020/21 season. We will be assessing each team’s chances of progressing through the playoffs and giving our betting tips for the League Two playoffs. Also be sure to check out Silentbet for the best bookmaker reviews only today! Following Silentbet will ensure you place all of your League Two playoff bets on the best operators in the industry.
League Two Playoff Semi-Finals
The League Two playoffs kick off on Thursday evening, starting with Colchester United’s clash with Exeter City and Northampton Town hosting Cheltenham later that evening. Colchester and Northampton will both be desperate to take an early lead in their home first legs before then facing the away trip in the second leg. The second legs will then take place on Monday 22 June, with the two winners of each tie then going to Wembley for the final on Monday 29 June.
There were seven points between Exeter and Colchester United in the League Two table at the conclusion of the season, with the Grecians themselves being only three points off the automatic promotion places with three games to play. Exeter are the favourites in the playoffs and for good reason too, having had experience of the playoffs twice in the last three seasons, albeit losing in the final both in 2017 and 2018. These two teams were involved in two draws during their regular season league meetings, but Colchester have managed just one win in eight games against Exeter and we are backing the Devon outfit to make it to Wembley.
Betting Tip: Exeter to qualify @ 3/4
In the second semi-final, Northampton face Cheltenham in a meeting of two teams that were separated by six points during the season. Playing away from home in the first leg, Northampton are the very slight underdogs in what is one of the closest League Two playoffs in history when it comes to the betting markets. The circumstances have certainly played a significant part in that, but so too do their meetings during the season which ended 3-2 on aggregate in favour of Cheltenham. Still, we are siding with Northampton’s extra quality to shine through in this tie.
Betting Tip: Northampton to qualify @ 1/1
Should it then come to fruition that Exeter will face Northampton in the League Two playoff final, we will be siding with Exeter to come out on top.
