Gillingham v Shrewsbury
It's the Gills vs the Shrews in the League Two playoff final. The winner will join the three clubs that achieved automatic promotion - Brentford, Exeter, and Wycombe - in League One next season. Shrewsbury finished the season in 7th place with 69 points, and just qualified for the playoffs, a point ahead of Dagenham and Redbridge. Gillingham finished in 5th place with 73 points.

Does that make Gillingham the favorites? Not necessarily. Shrewsbury had the better goal difference (17 to 3) and feature the league's top goal scorer, Grant Holt who scored 20. Gillingham's top striker, Simeon Jackson, wasn't far behind with 19 goals, and he scored the crucial 2 goals in the semi-final victory over Rochdale.

Shrewsbury needed a late goal from Kevin McIntyre to send the second leg of their semi-final against Bury into extra time. The match eventually went to penalties, and the hero was on-loan keeper Luke Daniels. In normal time, Daniels saved a penalty from Phil Jevons, and then he saved two more during the penalty shoot-out to give Shrews a 4-3 win on penalties. It was cruel fate for Bury however, as they missed out on automatic promotion by the narrowest of margins. Bury and Wycombe finished with 78 points, but Wycombe's goal difference of 21 was one better than Bury's 20. That meant Bury had to go the playoff route, where they lost out to Shrews. Jevon's missed penalty, the late goal from McIntyre, and a penalty shoot-out loss knocked Bury out of the playoffs and sent Shrews to the final. That makes you wonder whether the Shrews are destined for promotion.

If you look at these two clubs' meetings earlier in the season, you would have to favor Shrewsbury. They drew 2-2 at Gillingham in March, but the first meeting was a 7-0 victory for Shrewsbury back in September. That was a long time ago, and I'm certainly not expecting another thrashing like that, but I'm picking Shrews to win in the final.