![]() Rickie Lambert taking a free kick in the final | |||||||
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Date | 26 May 2007 | ||||||
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Venue | Wembley Stadium, London | ||||||
Referee | Mike Jones | ||||||
Attendance | 61,589 | ||||||
The 2007 Football League Two play-off final was an association football match which was on 26 May 2007 at Wembley Stadium, London, between Bristol Rovers and Shrewsbury Town to determine the fourth and final team to gain promotion from Football League Two to Football League One. The top two teams of the 2006–07 Football League Two season gained automatic promotion to League One, while those placed from third to sixth in the table partook in play-off semi-finals; the winners of these semi-finals competed for the final place for the 2007–08 season in League One.
Bristol Rovers had reached the play-off final in their sixth season back in the fourth tier of English football, having been relegated from the Second Division (equivalent of League One) in the 2000–01 season and Shrewsbury in their third season, after their promotion from the Football Conference in the 2003–04 season. The 2007 final was watched by a crowd of 61,589 people, a record for a fixture played at the fourth tier of English football, and refereed by Mike Jones. Shrewsbury opened the scoring through Stewart Drummond who scored after three minutes from a Neil Ashton free kick. Richard Walker levelled the match midway through the first half when he scored from a Ryan Green cross. Ten minutes before half-time, Walker scored his and Bristol Rovers' second goal after running clear and chipping the ball over Chris Mackenzie, the Shrewsbury Town goalkeeper. Shrewsbury were reduced to ten players when Marc Tierney was sent off near the end of the match for two yellow cards before Sammy Igoe scored into an empty goal to give Bristol Rovers a 3–1 victory and promotion to League One.
Shrewsbury Town ended the next season in eighteenth position, eight points above the relegation zone. Bristol Rovers finished sixteenth in League One, five points above the relegation zone, keeping their place in the third tier.