Background

This was Morecambe's first appearance in the play-off final, having played once before in the League play-offs in 2010 where they lost to Dagenham & Redbridge 7–2 on aggregate in the semi-final. They had played in League Two since gaining promotion from the Football Conference in the 2006–07 season through the play-offs and had never played in the third tier of English football in their history.^[8] Newport County were making their second play-off final appearance, having been defeated 1–0 by Tranmere Rovers in the 2019 EFL League Two play-off final. They had played in the fourth tier of English football since being promoted from the Conference via the play-offs in the 2012–13 season, beating Wrexham 2–0 in the final at Wembley.^[9] During the regular season, Newport won both meetings between the teams, winning 2–1 at Rodney Parade in December 2020 and 3–1 at the Globe Arena the following March.^[10] Carlos Mendes Gomes and Stockton were Morecambe's top scorers during the regular season with 15 goals each.^[11] Tristan Abrahams and Pádraig Amond were joint-highest scorers for Newport County, with eight goals each.^[12] Bobby Madley was the referee for the match, assisted by Geoffrey Liddle and David Hunt, while the fourth official was Craig Hicks.^[13]

Summary

The match kicked off around 3 p.m. on 31 May 2021 in sunny conditions with 9,083 spectators. Two minutes in, Mendes Gomes was fouled and a quickly-taken free kick resulted in him shooting wide of the Newport County goal. In the eighth minute, Mickey Demetriou launched a long throw-in into the Morecambe penalty area but the ball was caught by goalkeeper Kyle Letheren. Samuel Lavelle's looping header was then saved by Newport County goalkeeper Tom King. In the 13th minute, Scot Bennett's header from another Demetriou throw-in rolled just past the outside of the post. Letheren brought Bennett down but no penalty was awarded by Madley.^[14] Liam Shephard then struck a shot following another Demetriou throw-in, but the ball hit one of his teammates who was in an offside position. Midway through the half, Labadie's shot was blocked and Sheehan's subsequent strike was saved by Letheren, before the players took a drinks break. In the 32nd minute, Amond's shot from the edge of the Morecambe penalty area went wide before Sheehan's curling strike was also off-target. With three minutes of the half remaining, Aaron Lewis kicked the ball on the volley but his shot went over the Morecambe bar.^[15] In the 43rd minute, Mendes Gomes passed to Liam Gibson whose shot was on target but cleared by Shephard. Two minutes into first-half stoppage time, a shot from Bennett took a deflection off Yann Songo'o but the ball went just wide of the Morecambe goal, and Demetriou headed off-target from the resulting corner before the half was brought to a close with the score at 0–0.^[16]

Neither side made any changes to their personnel during the interval. Four minutes into the second half, Labadie passed to Collins whose deflected shot was saved by Letheren.^[16] In the 60th minute, Sheehan's shot from distance was saved and two minutes later Mendes Gomes made a clearance before Amond was able to shoot. Midway through the second half, Newport County made the first change of the game, making a double substitution with Ryan Taylor and Anthony Hartigan replacing Lewis and Dolan. Collins then saw his overhead kick from Demetriou's throw-in go over the Morecambe crossbar before Ryan Cooney's long-range shot was saved by King, and then the teams took their second-half drinks break. In the 75th minute, Morecambe made their first substitution of the afternoon with McAlinden being replaced by Brad Lyons. With eleven minutes of regular time remaining, Shephard's shot from 20 yards (18 m) was on target but saved by Letheren. A minute later, Maynard came on to replace Amond for Newport County, before Wildig's corner was headed over by Lavelle.^[17] Ellison then came on with four minutes of regular time remaining, replacing Collins for Newport County. In second-half stoppage time, Haynes took a free kick which was saved by Letheren before the full-time whistle was blown, and with the game goalless, it headed into extra time.^[18]

Before the first period of extra time kicked off, Morecambe substituted Wildig off and replaced him with John O'Sullivan. Two minutes in, Morecambe's Stockton headed Cooney's cross wide and four minutes later, Labadie became the first player of the match to be shown a yellow card after he fouled Songo'o.^[18] Just before half-time, Maynard's cross found Labadie but his shot went over the crossbar from close range and the half ended with score still at 0–0. Morecambe made one further change, with Kelvin Mellor replacing Gibson. A minute into the second period of extra time, O'Sullivan was brought down by Haynes and the referee awarded Morecambe a penalty which Mendes Gomes converted to give his side the lead. In the 111th minute, Newport County made another substitution with Priestley Farquharson coming on for Haynes before Hartigan's shot went over the Morecambe crossbar. Mendes Gomes was then replaced by Alex Kenyon for Morecambe.^[19] After three minutes of stoppage time, the final whistle was blown with Morecambe winning 1–0 and securing promotion to League One for the first time in their history.^[20]

Details

More information Morecambe, 1–0 (a.e.t.) ...

Morecambe	1–0 (a.e.t.)	Newport County
Mendes Gomes 107' (pen.)	Report

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Morecambe[21]

Newport County[21]

GK 1 Kyle Letheren RB 21 Ryan Cooney CB 5 Samuel Lavelle (c) CB 4 Nathaniel Knight-Percival LB 22 Liam Gibson  105' DM 24 Yann Songo'o RM 19 Liam McAlinden  75' CM 10 Aaron Wildig  90' CM 8 Toumani Diagouraga LM 11 Carlos Mendes Gomes  108'  114' CF 9 Cole Stockton Substitutes: GK 12 Mark Halstead DF 2 Kelvin Mellor  105' DF 6 Harry Davis MF 14 Alex Kenyon  114' MF 15 Brad Lyons  75' MF 16 John O'Sullivan  112'  90' MF 18 Ben Pringle Manager: Derek Adams

GK 1 Tom King CB 32 Liam Shephard CB 8 Matthew Dolan  63' CB 28 Mickey Demetriou  120' RWB 14 Aaron Lewis  62' CM 4 Joss Labadie (c)  96' CM 10 Josh Sheehan CM 17 Scot Bennett LWB 3 Ryan Haynes  111' CF 9 Pádraig Amond  80' CF 21 Lewis Collins  86' Substitutes GK 30 Nick Townsend DF 6 Priestley Farquharson  111' MF 20 Anthony Hartigan  63' MF 22 Kevin Ellison  86' MF 34 Joe Ledley FW 18 Nicky Maynard  80' FW 29 Ryan Taylor  62' Manager: Michael Flynn