Here’s the match report from Nick Miller.
Congratulations, Rotherham, who can look forward to Villa Park, Stoke, The Hawthorns and the Liberty. Commiserations to Shrewsbury, who get to go to Sunderland. The best team won, it has to be said. Now, one play-off to go. Coventry v Exeter on Monday. Who will be travelling to the New Meadow?
Rotherham manager Paul Warne speaks
They went toe to toe with us, I am really proud of my group of lads. It was a horrendous 12 months last year. [On Wood] I call him my wrecking ball. He is prepared to break his nose for the team. His attacking and defending set pieces was the difference. The only person I didn’t want to beat was [Shrewsbury manager Paul Hurst] Hursty, but Hursty will go on to great things.
Two-goal hero Richard Wood speaks.
I am speechless. We’ve come so far from last season, it was terrible. To turn it around in the manager great credit. To get a brace has never been heard of. I see my kids crying in the stands. That’s what it’s all about. I am proud to do it for them.
Richard Wood the two-goal hero, while Shrewsbury experience the desolation of losing in the play-off. Rotherham were the better team.
Rotherham are promoted to the Championship!
One, last desperate attack from Shrewsbury but the ball ends up in Rodak’s hands. And that’s it!
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120 mins: A whiff of a chance, but then Richard Wood, our hero, steps in to quell the danger. He can barely stand up straight or walk, but they shall not pass.
120 mins: There are two added minutes here.
118 mins: Break on for Shrewsbury? No, Rotherham get men back. And at the other end, Williams weaves into the opposing area. He goes down. Penalty? Don’t be daft. He went down in stages.
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116 mins: Rodak has to come out to claim the ball. Rotherham beginning to camp a little deeply for comfort. They get a break when Godfrey crops down Vaulks, who has stud marks right down the back of his calf. Nasty business.
115 mins: Shrewsbury free-kick now. Whalley’s free-kick went a long way and Rodak had to dig it out. Rotherham’s keeper did well and then Williams helped shut down a danger that is quelled by a silly foul by John-Lewis.
113 mins: Rodman, bandaged up, cramped up, rises to win a header and also smiling. Some stones on the man.
112 mins: Shrews have played 62 matches this season, more than Liverpool or Manchester City, so it is little shock to see their players going down with cramp.
111 mins: It’s all Rotherham, still, and that’s bad news for Shrewsbury fans. Their small squad, which was punching above its weight, looks to have seized up.
110 mins: Off goes Joe Newell, the creator of that Wood goal, and on comes Anthony Forde, no slouch himself as an attacker. Paul Warne continuing to be progressive.
109 mins: Rotherham on the attack. Williams, outstanding since coming on, up against Beckles again, and this time the Shrews defender does well.
108 mins: Here come Shrewsbury. Beckles on the charge. Calls for a pen? No, the opposite. A goal-kick.
107 mins: Will Rotherham sit back on this? They have been on the front foot all game, and that has been the difference.
106 mins: OK, 15 minutes to save the Shrews. And for the Millers to see this out.
The huddles break and the second half of extra time can begin. The two Pauls can do no more now.
Jenny Britnell emails in: “c’m on you Shrews.! We are following your commentary - somewhat nervously on slow internet connection in the middle on the English Channel - it will all be over before we know it - literally ..”
Sorry to be the bearer of such bad news.
105 mins: Half-time in extra-time. Credit must go to Joe Newell’s set-piece for that Wood goal.
105 mins: At the other end, the heroic Wood clears the danger of a Shrewsbury attack. Two minutes added in this period of extra-time.
104 mins: The guilty party there was Shrewsbury’s John-Lewis. He cannot even use tiredness as an excuse, as he was a second-half sub. It was a forward’s attempt to defend.
Goal! Rotherham 2-1 Shrewsbury (Wood, 103)
Who else but Richard Wood? This time it wasn’t a header, but a centre-forward’s finish from another well-worked free-kick.
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102 mins: Sadler yellow-carded for a tackle on Williams. The referee recognised its cynicism.
101 mins: Nolan knocked over, by Lavery, to ease a bit of pressure in extra-time.
99 mins: Newell’s free-kick is high, and Dean Henderson again comes for the ball to get it clear. He is never slow in coming forward. Eventually, Towell gets a shot in that flies miles over.
97 mins: A break in play, as goalscorer Rodman has bleeding from his bonce.
96 mins: Whalley’s corner is cleared. Ryan Williams on the run. Whalley commits the foul, and he is on a yellow card. This referee has let plenty go without being as, well, negligent as Anthony Taylor in the Championship game.
95 mins: Williams ran at Beckles, but this time the Shrewsbury defender did his job well. Godfrey surges to the byline and wins a corner at the other end.
94 mins: Penalties have a magnetic pull on these occasions and it is difficult to see beyond them at this point.
93 mins: Sadler makes a hurried clearance. Rotherham piling it on again, but Joe Newell’s shot is poor.
91 mins: It’s leggy stuff, as might be expected, with Omar Beckles, who looks cream crackered, lamping the ball into touch when he had team-mates on. Rotherham will look to target Beckles, though they have done that all day, to be fair.
Here we go, then. The team talks are done. Shrewsbury have made all three subs, while Rotherham have one to go.
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Michael Connellan emails in: “Hi John, Great coverage of the game - thanks. Thought I’d point out that Richard Wood is not just a leader on the pitch. Off the pitch, he supports a type 1 diabetes charity, JDRF, following the diagnosis of his son with the condition. Nacho has type 1 diabetes and he won the Champions League yesterday.”
Full-time!
And extra-time beckons. Some tired legs around and some heavy duty work for the masseurs to come. And the managers. Which of the two Pauls can outsmart the other?
90 mins+5: What a save! Williams cut in from the right-hand side. His shot was arrowing into the goal...but Henderson got a firm hand to it, somehow. That was the one!
90 mins+4: Shrewsbury digging in, and Jay Emmanuel’s efforts to force a run down the wing are stopped by a series of agricultural tackles.
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90 mins+3: Rotherham the team pushing the hardest here.
90 mins+2: Nsiala came across to stop a Williams run. Another Rotherham corner. Henderson came a long way to get nowhere near it, and is lucky that Will Vaulks cannot get a shot on target.
90 mins: 5 (FIVE!) minutes of added time has been declared, and both teams look tired enough to concede.
88 mins: Wood was the target again for a Rotherham corner, but Riley got in his way.
87 mins: Chances at both ends. Whalley has a shot saved by Rodak and when Smith looked to be pushing through, John Nolan’s tackle stopped him.
86 mins: Michael Hann tweets in again. Our original estimate not far off, then.
@JohnBrewin_ They’ve just announced the attendance. 26,218.
— Michael Hann (@MichaelAHann) May 27, 2018
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85 mins: Oof, close. Rotherham’s Smith went close, but just as he seemed to have to got past Henderson, the goalkeeper managed to get a claw on the ball.
84 mins: In these times of high-profile goalkeeping mistakes, thoughts go out to the goalies.
83 mins: An understandable slowing of hostilities at this late stage. Here’s when the cramp starts appearing, and as Kevin Keegan famously said, that is worse than a broken leg.
81 mins: Into the last ten minutes we go, and it’s hugely difficult to work out which way this one is going. Extra-time seems like it would be the favourite.
80 mins: Michael Hann, a colleague at Guardian Towers, tweets in: “Am at Wembley. Can’t help feeling they would get better crowds with better pricing. £80 for our seats among Shrews fans at side. Yes, it’s Wembley but it’s also L1 football.”
79 mins: Lavery again in the mix as Rotherham try to find their winner, but John-Lewis, at the other end, has a shot on goal from the right side of the box. Rodak dived and was beaten, but so was the post.
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77 mins: Shrewsbury at last have a chance to get on the attack, but fail to make much of their chance to either get breathing space or find a potential winner.
76 mins: Lavery is finding the same space that David Ball found in the first half, and has another effort on goal.
75 mins: Rotherham sub: On comes Williams for Taylor.
73 mins: And Lavery should have scored! In an inside left position, he had the goal gaping and tried a chip. Vaulks now fires one in. Rotherham have recovered their dominance now.
72 mins: Final Shrewsbury sub: Joe Riley has come on for Bolton at right-back.
70 mins: Rotherham sub: Wood, so excellent in that first half hour, got tired and has left the field to be replaced by Lavery.
69 mins: Rotherham piling it back on now. Vaulks’ shot squirts through and Henderson makes the save when he was unsighted.
67 mins: That Shrewsbury goal brought back memories of well-worked free-kick, but mine has failed me.
Initially thought it was like this Brolin goal from 1994 but there was actually one more touch by Shrews.
66 mins: Rotherham, so effervescent, have gone a bit milky here. Shrewsbury are now the team exerting their power.
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64 mins: Substitution: Morris cannot soldier on for any longer. He rips his own shirt in rage and punches the wall in anger as John-Lewis comes on for him.
62 mins: Carlton Morris down, and for the second time. Looks to be the end of his afternoon. The initial tackle from Wood had the Rotherham player wincing. But Morris seems determined to carry on.
59 mins: After so much sludge from Shrewsbury that was liquid stuff. In pre-match, Paul Hurst had suggested he would work on free-kicks. It was Sadler’s pass from Whalley’s initial kick that made it and Rodman was through on goal.
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Goal! Rotherham 1-1 Shrewsbury (Rodman, 58)
What a goal, from a beautifully worked free-kick.
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57 mins: Carlton Morris is fouled, and this is a promising position for Shrewsbury.
56 mins: Morris had taken a bit of a kicking, so Payne brings on fresh legs to try and energise a flagging effort from Shrewsbury.
54 mins: Stefan Payne, leading scorer for Shrews, is coming on for Bryn Morris. That’s a rejig of the strikeforce.
53 mins: Shrewsbury still struggling badly with Rotherham’s bombardment. Looks like a change is on its way for the team behind.
51 mins: Another Rotherham free-kick. Let the aerial duels commence.
49 mins: Rotherham corner. Wood v Beckles? Not this time, but another corner swiftly happens and Nsiala is marking Wood in any case. Henderson was baulked as he climbed to catch. Nsiala was all over Wood, in the same style that Beckles chose.
48 mins: Worth mentioning that there were no half-time subs made. Beckles gets chance to make amends. Meanwhile, Carlton Morris found space up front. He pinged the ball across goal but no colleagues around to convert it.
47 mins: Paul Hurst has shed the tracksuit top, having presumably worked up a sweat in the Shrewsbury dressing room.
46 mins: The second half is back underway. What can Shrewsbury find? Can Rotherham keep up their excellence?
Other stuff to look out for today:
Half-time whistle goes!
Captain Richard Wood did all the damage for Rotherham. Omar Beckles has not known what to do with Wood’s surges forward for set pieces. David Ball missed the penalty Beckles conceded and then Wood took matters into his own hands by scoring Rotherham’s goal. United’s main worry is that Shrewsbury surely cannot be as bad as that in the second half. And will Beckles run out for the second 45?
45 mins: Into added time in the first half. Shrewsbury have a free-kick after a foul by Wood but fail to force even a corner from another weak attempt.
44 mins: Beckles, trying to make amends perhaps, charges forward, and almost forces an opening. He might be fearing that his match might end at half-time here. Paul Hurst needs to change something.
42 mins: Rotherham’s choice of playing toward their own fans has paid dividends. Shrews fans have barely had a close-up of their heroes. Henderson, in Shrewsbury’s goal, dives and can’t get to a Richie Towell shot, which just drifts over.
40 mins: Carlton Morris released by Nolan down the channels, but he has nobody for company. His team-mates are having to get through far too much defending to be able to indulge in some “total football” attacking.
38 mins: Beckles panics again when the ball is aimed for Wood again. It’s a barrage, and it’s a shock at this point that Rotherham aren’t leading by more, or that they haven’t won more penalties. Do Shrewsbury have a defender on the bench?
37 mins: Nasty challenge from Shrewsbury’s James Bolton sees him collect a yellow card. This time on the free-kick, Wood is being picked up by Carlton Morris.
35 mins: Reminder that Shrewsbury have lost all four previous visits to Wembley. And this occasion does seem to have frozen them somewhat.
34 mins: Paul Hurt looking less smiley now. His team have been much the poorer side.
33 mins: Wood made an unchallenged run on Beckles, clearly mindful of that penalty, and other ref warnings, and who seemed to let his opponent go. Rotherham exploited the space beautifully.
Goal! Rotherham 1-0 Shrewsbury (Wood, 32)
And it comes from that one-on-one battle once more. Beckles this time let Wood go and the centre-back launched a header that Henderson could do nothing about.
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31 mins: Beginning to look like Shrewsbury have worked out what to do with David Ball. He has become far more peripheral.
30 mins: Beckles, up for the corner, almost got to the cross. Next, Nolan creates a chance for Carlton Morris, whose flicked header drifts past the post.
29 mins: Shrewsbury win a corner. Nolan’s cross swept behind by Morris.
28 mins: Beckles’ clashes with Wood seem likely to give rise to another penalty for Rotherham. The Shrews defender just can’t stop feeling up his opponent and the ref keeps warning him to stop.
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26 mins: First booking of the day? Shaun Whalley led with his elbow as he smashed into Rotherham’s Mattock. Meanwhile...
#ClassyTouch by the Rotherham fans for singing "Stand up, if you love Millers". We v much appreciate it.
— Nick Miller (@NickMiller79) May 27, 2018
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24 mins: Ball has a shot blocked. Another corner. This time Taylor’s ball is into Henderson’s arms, and after an initial drop of the ball, he takes hold.
22 mins: Can Rotherham keep this up? They have exerted far greater energy so far. Ball’s passing finds Taylor in space, but the offside flag is waved. Some real danger from Ball, who has been excellent, a ball-player of distinction.
21 mins: Another free-kick, another infringement. This time, Rotherham’s Smith is penalised.
20 mins: Shrews chance! Rodman just couldn’t get to a Shaun Whalley cross.
17 mins: Rotherham much the better team. They are hunting hard for the goal they should really have already. A corner is won, but Wood fails to climb highest. It looked like Beckles - again - was guilty of manhandling.
16 mins: David Ball is eager to make up for that missed penalty, and went on weaving run, and Nsiala has to come across to stop Rotherham’s twinkle-toed forward.
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14 mins: John Nolan forces a corner. That’s better from Shrewsbury, but the delivery needs to be better. It’s taken short for Alex Rodman to fire a shot that’s blocked.
13 mins: Shrewsbury yet to get going at all. They are going for some route one stuff.
12 mins: Rotherham still having the better of it, really pushing on for this, and Shrewsbury making the type of hurried interventions that led to that penalty.
11 mins: Reminder that Dean Henderson is on loan from Manchester United, where he is rated most highly. Agonising for Paul Warne, Rotherham boss, on the sidelines.
Penalty saved! (10 mins)
David Ball stepped up coolly, too coolly and Shrews keeper Dean Henderson read it right. Right height.
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Penalty given! (9 mins).
Beckles clatters Wood. Ref Robert Jones had no choice but to give it.
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7 mins: Nsiala close to conceding a pen? The ball hit his thigh and bounced into his hand. Corner given instead to Rotherham.
5 mins: Shrewsbury trying to get underway. Whalley got buffeted by Mattock, and that’s another free-kick. It comes to nothing. So far the deliveries have betrayed understandable nervousness.
3 mins: Ball is getting the Grealish treatment already. Nsiala clattered him and the referee was really rather lenient with him; a yellow card seemed most likely.
2 mins: Rotherham go close. David Ball escapes down the flank, and centres a pass that Joe Newell was closest to. Promising for United. Worrying for Shrewsbury.
1 min: Looks like Shrewsbury are planning to press hard from the start. On the sideline, Paul Hurst has a big smile across his face, and a tracksuit on. A few minutes ago, he was wearing a suit. Tony Pulis-chic, let’s call it.
Kick-off
Rotherham get it underway.
The teams swap ends after the coin toss. Rotherham will kick towards their fans for the first half.
Kick-off draws near, and it looks more a day for ice cream and cold beer rather than 90 minutes of football which can make or break careers.
Paul Hurst, Shrews manager, played his entire career for Rotherham, and spent five years with United manager, Paul Warne, as his team-mate. The two Pauls shared a manly embrace in the tunnel earlier this afternoon.
Their respective teams are currently on the Wembley turf meeting the EFL suits.
Like Saturday’s match, it is very hot at Wembley and that made for heavy fatigue and some tetchy behaviour.
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Last time Rotherham were in the play-off final, they beat Leyton Orient on penalties in the 2014 final. This was how manager Steve Evans celebrated.
Right, that's enough serious info for a bit.
— Wembley Stadium (@wembleystadium) May 26, 2018
Thank you for listening.
As a show of appreciation, here's Steve Evans almost losing his trousers celebrating a goal!😂 pic.twitter.com/Dkr2G7Gff2
Shrewsbury have recent memories of Wembley which may not be too sweet. Their loss to League Two Lincoln was a big shock.
The bookmakers’ odds suggest Rotherham are quite warm favourites, and that may be a result of the two teams’ late-season form. Shrewsbury spent 200 days in an automatic promotion spot, having been expected to struggle against relegation in pre-season.
It is estimated that Rotherham will bring 14,000 fans down to Wembley, while 11,000 Salopians make their way east. That means Wembley might be quite empty, begging the question of why the national stadium has to host this game (beyond money), though the flipside of that is that fans all want to see their team play at the hallowed ground (or the redux that opened in 2007).
Let’s look back at yesterday’s match while also looking forward to next season.
And here are the teams...
TEAM NEWS: The two managers have named their teams for this afternoon’s @SkyBetLeagueOne Play-Off Final. @OfficialRUFC v @shrewsweb - happy with those line-ups? #EFLPlayOffs pic.twitter.com/zvJafzWLy0
— EFL (@EFL) May 27, 2018
Preamble
Saturday’s Championship play-off got the EFL’s showpiece weekend off to a cracking start. There might have been just one goal in it between Fulham and Villa, but that game had just about everything else, including an incredibly laissez-faire refereeing performance from Anthony Taylor. Jack Grealish will have a sore leg, riven with studs from Ryan Fredericks, as well as banging head.
Now, who gets to join reluctant, pained Villa in the second tier of English football? Eight points, though only a single place, separated Shrewsbury and Rotherham in the regular season. The Shrews’ hopes of automatic promotion collapsed in the latter weeks as Blackburn and Wigan surged clear. Promotion would be a step into territory lost in the mists of time. The club has not been in the old Second Division since 1988-89, and even played a season of Conference football in 2003-04.
Rotherham are bidding to return to the division where they collected just 23 points last season. Paul Warne has done a fine salvage job at the New York Stadium, just as Paul Hurst, linked with a move to Ipswich come what may, has done at the New Meadow.
As always with these fixtures, what follows the final whistle (perhaps after ET +P) will be a clear divide between triumph and desolation. And that’s why we watch these games.
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