League One play-off dates confirmed after clubs vote to end season early

Final will take place at Wembley Stadium in mid-July

The League One season is set to conclude on 13 July after the English Football League (EFL) announced play-off dates for the third tier.

League One clubs voted to curtail the regular season in a vote on Tuesday, leaving four sides to fight it out for the final promotion place to the Championship.

Portsmouth FC will take on Oxford United in a semi-final first leg on Friday 3 July, the same evening that Fleetwood Town host Wycombe Wanderers. The former fixture will kick off at 5.30pm BST, while the latter follows at 7.30pm BST.

The return legs will be played on Monday 6 July, with the final scheduled for a week later at Wembley Stadium.

The decision to curtail the League One season was less clear cut than in the division below, with Peterborough United owner Darragh MacAnthony expressing his unhappiness about the decision this week.

“Every letter from the EFL stated that we wanted to finish the season and we went along with that,” MacAnthony said on Sky Sports.

“I spoke to Rick Parry, the chairman, in May and I said to him: ‘What are we doing? Things seem to be improving.’ And he said: ‘We want to finish the season, there’s no reason not to finish the season.’ So, again, we went along with that.

“We voted for football. We will always vote for football. I understand the health concerns but we’ve now been told football is back – the Premier League is back, the Championship is back. The EFL is 71 clubs and we’ve been told we can’t play football, so it’s devastation and disappointment.”

The points-per-game calculation used to decide the final standings meant Peterborough dropped out of the top six, missing out on a play-off place.

PA