Wycombe Wanderers will play in the second tier of English football for the first time next season after edging past Oxford United in the League One play-off final at Wembley.
A tense and tight contest was settled by a Joe Jacobson penalty with just over 10 minutes to play after Fred Onyedinma was fouled by Oxford goalkeeper Simon Eastwood.
Wycombe had taken an early lead when centre-back Anthony Stewart headed in a dangerous Jacobson corner via a deflection off Eastwood’s legs.
Oxford found a second-half equaliser when Mark Sykes lobbed Ryan Allsop with what appeared to be a mishit cross, but the U’s could not capitalise on what was their best spell of the game.
Wycombe’s victory capped off an incredible season for the Buckinghamshire club, who almost dropped out of the English Football League in 2014 and arguably started this campaign as relegation candidates based on their bottom-six finish the previous season.
Added to that, when the regular season was suspended in March because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Chairboys were outside the play-off places in the third tier.
But when the final league standings were determined on an unweighted points-per-game basis, Gareth Ainsworth’s side leapt up to third to book their shot at promotion.
More to follow.
