Five former Town players will be involved in this afternoon’s National League play-off final between Southend United and Oldham Athletic at Wembley (KO 3pm).

In the Latics squad will be strikers James Norwood and Joe Garner, while the Shrimpers’ party features another frontman, one-time Blues loanee Macauley Bonne, as well as keeper Nick Hayes and full-back Nathan Ralph, who came through the academy ranks at Playford Road.

Oldham finished fifth in the National League table and Southend seventh, five points behind.

The Latics beat Halifax, who included another ex-Blue, Josh Emmanuel, in their XI, 4-0 at home and York City 3-0 away to reach the play-off final.

The Essex side defeated Rochdale, for whom on-loan Town attacker Leon Ayinde came off the bench, 4-3 after extra-time and then overcame Forest Green Rovers 4-2 on penalties following a 2-2 draw, both away, to make it to Wembley.

Photo: Matchday Images

Gforce added 13:43 - Jun 1 York City finished the season in 2nd place,23 points clear of Oldham, then lost to them in a one off game ,the play off's seem so unfair,the powers that be should have a rethink.
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BeachBlue added 14:26 - Jun 1 Macauley Bonne, loved that guy. Hope he wins today.
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bringmeaKuqi added 14:30 - Jun 1 Garner has been playing well in the last few weeks - was immense against York. But generally latics have struggled to keep him and Norwood fit (familiar to anyone). Norwood is on 5k a week which is mad at that level
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Gforce added 16:00 - Jun 1 To those marking me down,would you still think the same if it was Ipswich next season finishing 3rd ,23 points clear of Norwich and then losing to them in the play-offs ????
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scooby added 22:04 - Jun 1 Hate the playoffs. Shouldn't exist. I thought the whole point of playing 46 games was u get what u deserved over a whole. Season. Defeats the whole point of having a season in the 1st place
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PhuketPete added 06:08 - Jun 2 Playoffs suck. I remember that year when we finished in 3rd, maybe a point off the auto places, but 12 points or so clear of West Ham, then lost to them. Anyway something like that. The powers that be dress it up as being to keep excitement going to the end of the season but we all know it’s just about money and touch luck for the poor sods who finish 3rd if they don’t make it. And if there really has to be a play off for promotion, why not also for relegation?

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naa added 09:52 - Jun 2 PhuketPete: the original play-offs used to also include the 3rd bottom club from the division above playing against the possible promotion teams (Germany still do this). I generally think this is a bad idea as it just increases the chance of team staying up. If, however, you are suggesting the bottom 6 could all get sucked into a relegation play-off that might be fun. But considering the huge financial impacts it could be seen to be rather unfair. Fun for the neutral though.

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Jugsy added 11:21 - Jun 2 Totally agree, Gforce - having only two places for promotion is wrong in itself but to then have a larger pool of playoff games (all one-offs) is just bizarre. It's happened many times where there's two teams better than the rest of the league and for one of them, they have to run the gauntlet at the end. Then in League 2, 3 automatics and 1 playoff go up, but only 2 come down - League 1 3 up, 4 down... what!? WHY?!

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