Southend United have won promotion to League One following their win in a penalty shootout against Wycombe in the League Two play-off Final at Wembley Stadium.
Wycombe, who had occupied a top three position from late September, only to drop out on the penultimate weekend, had progressed to the final following a 5-3 aggregate victory over Plymouth in the play-off semi-finals.
Southend United promoted from League Two following win at Wembley
Southend made their way to Wembley following two successive 1-1 draws against Stevenage, winning the second leg in extra-time.
Both sides were evenly matched throughout the 90 minutes as neither side were prepared to concede that first goal.
But extra-time was just five minutes old when Wycombe took a crucial lead. Joe Jacobson’s free kick bounced off the bar and went in off the unfortunate Shrimpers keeper Daniel Bentley.
As the extra-time period came to a close, it looked like it would be Wycombe that would gain promotion, but two minutes into the added time at the end of the game, Charlton loanee Joe Pigott slotted home to take the tie to a penalty shootout.
Pigott converted the first penalty, and Wycombe leveled with their opener. But then left back Ben Coker saw his penalty saved by 20 year old keeper Alex Lynch, who was making just his third start.
Alfie Mawson, who is on loan from Brentford, converted his to give the Chairboys the advantage. But the Shrimpers scored their next two either side of Chairboys top scorer Paul Hayes, before Matt Bloomfield saw his penalty saved by Bentley.
The next six penalties were all successful, as was Bolger’s for Southend. Up stepped Sam Wood for Wycombe, but Bentley managed to deny the left sided player, sending Southend back to League One after four seasons in England’s fourth tier.
