Preview: Barnsley vs Sheffield Wednesday. L1 Play off final

Monday at 3pm will see an important Yorkshire derby take place at Wembley, with the winners earning promotion to the Championship.

In a normal season the 97 points Wednesday earned would have seen them promoted, but strong performances by Ipswich Town and Plymouth Argyle and dropped points by Wednesday during March and April (including losing 4-2 to today’s opponents Barnsley in March) meant that the playoffs were their route hopefully to the Championship. Even then they made hard work of the playoffs losing 4-0 to Peterborough in the first leg, and overcoming Peterborough 5-1 in the second leg and winning on penalties at Hillsborough.

Barnsley will be hoping to bounce straight back to the Championship having suffered relegation last season. They had a slow start to the season but picked up from mid-September and spent most of the season occupying a play off place.

Barnsley did the double of Wednesday this season, winning 2-0 at Hillsborough in September then winning 4-2 at Oakwell in March.

Barnsley have a full squad available and so will possibly start with the team that started against Bolton in the second leg. Former Exeter number 31 James Norwood is likely to start the game on the bench.

Sheffield Wednesday have an almost fit squad, with players that looked doubtful after the win over Peterborough having trained this week. Cam Dawson who helped secure promotion for Exeter last season should start in goal and will be hoping for a consecutive promotion.

Sheffield Wednesday’s press conference with Darren Moore

Barnsley’s Michael Duff’s press conference