2012 Football League Two play-off Final

Cheltenham had played in two fourth tier play-off finals before 2012, winning them both. In 2002, they faced Rushden & Diamonds in the Third Division play-off final at the Millennium Stadium, winning 3–1.[8] Four years later, Cheltenham secured promotion from the third tier of English football through the play-offs for a second time, beating Grimsby Town 1–0 in the final in Cardiff.[9] Crewe had also appeared in two play-offs finals previously, both at the old Wembley Stadium. They lost the 1993 Football League Third Division play-off Final against York City in a penalty shootout, and defeated Brentford 1–0 in the 1997 Football League Second Division play-off Final.[10] Both Cheltenham and Crewe had played in the fourth tier of English football since they were relegated in the 2008–09 season.[11][12]

Crewe won both matches played between the sides during the regular season, with a 1–0 victory at Whaddon Road in October 2011 followed by a 1–0 win at Gresty Road the following April.[13] Nick Powell was Crewe's top scorer for the season with 14 goals (all in the league),[14] while Darryl Duffy led the scoring charts for Cheltenham with 13 (11 in the league and 2 in the FA Cup).[15] Crewe's manager Davis believed the contest would be even: "There's no favourites. If anything they'd be, as they finished above us. But the fact that they won more games than us doesn't count for anything now."[16]

The referee for the match was Craig Pawson who was assisted by Steve Bratt and John Brooks. The fourth official was Nigel Miller while David Rock was the reserve assistant referee.[17] Crewe made one change to their line-up from the play-off semi-final second leg with Luke Murphy replacing Lee Bell having recovered from a groin injury. Cheltenham made two changes: Keith Lowe and James Spencer were dropped from the Cheltenham side and were replaced by Luke Garbutt and Jeff Goulding.[18] Both sides adopted a 4–4–2 formation.[19] According to The Daily Telegraph the match was played in "blistering temperatures".[18]

Byron Moore (pictured in 2010) scored Crewe's second goal.

The match kicked off around 3 p.m. on 27 May 2012 in front of a crowd of 24,029.[20] The first shot of the match came in the third minute from Cheltenham's Mohamed but it was wide of the Crewe goal. Seven minutes later, Powell won the ball and passed to Murphy whose shot from the edge of the penalty area was saved by Scott Brown in the Cheltenham goal, before Leitch-Smith struck an effort wide. In the 12th minute McGlashan's strike was saved by Crewe goalkeeper Steve Phillips. Three minutes later Powell scored to put Crewe 1–0 ahead: Kelvin Mellor found Powell, who beat a defender by flicking the ball up before striking a volley into the Cheltenham net from around 20 yards (18 m). Goulding's long-range shot then struck the Crewe crossbar before rebounding to Burgess who missed the target. In the 25th minute, Goulding struck Burgess' flick-on into the Crewe net but the goal was disallowed for offside. Mohamed's 27th minute shot went high over the Crewe goal before Goulding's strike was over the bar six minutes later. Powell then struck a shot from distance wide of the goal in the 36th minute before Mellor's close-range header went over Cheltenham's crossbar five minutes later. Phillips then saved from a Goulding header before the referee blew the whistle for half-time with Crewe leading 1–0.[18][21]

Neither side made any change to their personnel during the interval. Six minutes into the second half, Pack's 20-yard (18 m) low strike was just wide of the Crewe goal. A mistake from Dugdale sae Mohamed run through on goal in the 54th minute, but Phillips made the save. A free kick from Westwood in the 71st minute found Dugdale in the Cheltenham penalty area but his control was poor and allowed Brown to block his shot. In the 75th minute, Cheltenham made their first substitution of the match with Duffy coming on to replace Goulding. Pack's long-range strike then went of Crewe's goal before Powell was substituted for Clayton. Byron Moore's 81st minute shot was just wide of the Cheltenham's right-hand goalpost but a minute later his shot into the bottom-corner of the net after exchanged passes with Leitch-Smith made it 2–0. In the 83rd minute, Cheltenham made a double-substitution, with Russell Penn and Spencer coming on for Pack and Burgess. Soon after Carl Martin came on for Leitch-Smith before Brown made saves from both Moore and Clayton. Deep into stoppage time, Bell came on for Moore and the final whistle was blown, Crewe winning 2–0 and gaining promotion to League One.[18][21]