2025 EFL League One play-off final

2025 EFL League One play-off Final

Wembley Stadium in London hosted the final.
Charlton Athletic Leyton Orient 1 0
Date	25 May 2025 (2025-05-25)
Venue	Wembley Stadium, London
Referee	Andrew Kitchen
Attendance	76,193
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The 2025 EFL League One play-off final was an association football match which was played on 25 May 2025 at Wembley Stadium, London, to determine the third and final team to gain promotion from EFL League One, the third tier of English football, to the EFL Championship. The top two teams of the 2024–25 EFL League One, Birmingham City and Wrexham, gained automatic promotion to the Championship, while the clubs placed from third to sixth in the table – Stockport County, Charlton Athletic, Wycombe Wanderers and Leyton Orient – took part in the 2025 English Football League play-offs.

Charlton won the play-off final 1-0 against Leyton Orient to gain promotion to the Championship, the first time in this league since their relegation in 2020. ^[1]

Route to the final

Main articles: 2024–25 EFL League One and 2025 English Football League play-offs § League One

EFL League One final table, leading positions

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Birmingham City (C, P)	46	34	9	3	84	31	+53	111	Promotion to 2025–26 EFL Championship
2	Wrexham (P)	46	27	11	8	67	34	+33	92
3	Stockport County	46	25	12	9	72	42	+30	87	Eliminated
4	Charlton Athletic	46	25	10	11	67	43	+24	85	Qualified
5	Wycombe Wanderers	46	24	12	10	70	45	+25	84	Eliminated
6	Leyton Orient	46	24	6	16	72	48	+24	78	Qualified

Source: EFL Official Website
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted

Charlton Athletic finished the regular 2024–25 season in fourth place in EFL League One, the third tier of the English football league system, two places and seven points ahead of Leyton Orient. Both, therefore, missed out on the two automatic places for promotion to the EFL Championship and instead took part the play-offs to determine the third promoted team. Charlton finished seven points behind Wrexham (who were promoted in second place) and 26 behind league winners Birmingham City. They finished a point a head of Wycombe Wanderers, their opponents in the play-off semi-final. Leyton Orient finished nine points behind Stockport County, their semi-final opponents. ^[2]

The first leg between Wycombe Wanderers and Charlton took place at Adams Park on 11 May. The finished in a 0–0 draw. ^[3]

On 10 May, Leyton Orient played Stockport County at Brisbane Road drawing 2–2. Charlie Kelman put Orient ahead in the 30th minute scoring from an Omar Beckles assist and Oliver Norwood then equalised for County in the 60th minute with a penalty kick for a handball by Rarmani Edmonds-Green and Fraser Horsfall then put the visitors ahead in the 65th minute from a Norwood cross. Kelman then equalised for the hosts in the 88th minute with another penalty kick for another handball by Horsfall. ^[4]

Charlton then played their second leg against Wycombe Wanderers on 15 May at The Valley winning 1–0. Matt Godden scored the sole goal in the 81st minute to give Charlton a 1–0 on the night and a 1–0 victory on aggregate. This sent them to their first play-off final since the 2019 EFL League One play-off final where they beat Sunderland 2–1. ^[5]

Leyton Orient played their semi-final second leg at Edgeley Park on 14 May drawing 1–1 after extra time and winning 4-1 on penalties. Ollie O'Neill opened the scoring for Orient in the 3rd minute from an Ethan Galbraith free-kick and Isaac Olaofe then equalised for Stockport in the 74th minute from a Jack Diamond assist. As no further goals were scored in extra time the match went to penalties with only Norwood scoring his spot-kick for County with Diamond and Ryan Rydel missing their penalties. Tom James, Sean Clare, Azeem Abdulai and Galbraith all successfully convertered their spot kicks to send Orient to their first play-off final since the 2014 Football League One play-off final where they drew 2–2 and lost 4–3 on penalties to Rotherham United. ^[6]

Match

Details

25 May 2025

13:01 BST

Charlton Athletic	1–0	Leyton Orient
Gillesphey 31'	Report

Wembley Stadium, London

Attendance: 76,193

Referee: Andrew Kitchen

Charlton Athletic

Leyton Orient

GK 25 Will Mannion CB 2 Kayne Ramsay CB 5 Lloyd Jones  90+2' CB 3 Macaulay Gillesphey RWB 26 Thierry Small  68' CM 6 Conor Coventry CM 10 Greg Docherty (c) LWB 16 Josh Edwards AM 17 Alex Gilbert  68' AM 7 Tyreece Campbell  81' CF 24 Matt Godden  81' Substitutes: GK 21 Ashley Maynard-Brewer DF 4 Alex Mitchell DF 27 Tennai Watson  68' MF 8 Luke Berry MF 18 Karoy Anderson  68' FW 22 Chuks Aneke  81' FW 33 Micah Mbick  81' Head Coach: Nathan Jones

GK 24 Josh Keeley RB 22 Ethan Galbraith CB 19 Omar Beckles (c)  82' CB 45 Rarmani Edmonds-Green LB 12 Jack Currie CM 8 Jordan Brown  74' CM 28 Sean Clare  74' RW 7 Dan Agyei  82' AM 17 Jamie Donley LW 21 Ollie O'Neill  82' CF 23 Charlie Kelman Substitutes: GK 26 Noah Phillips DF 2 Tom James  74' DF 5 Dan Happe  82' MF 9 Randell Williams  82' MF 15 Dominic Ball  74' MF 47 Azeem Abdulai  82' FW 44 Dilan Markanday Head Coach: Richie Wellens

Statistics

	Charlton Athletic	Leyton Orient
Possession	37%	63%
Goals scored	1	0
Shots on target	3	1
Shots off target	2	15
Fouls committed	11	9
Corner kicks	2	6
Yellow cards	1	0
Red cards	0	0

References

1. Wiseman, Ciaran (25 May 2025). "Charlton finally seal Championship return as Orient's 95-year curse continues". talkSPORT. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
2. "Sky Bet League One | Football Web Pages". www.footballwebpages.co.uk. Retrieved 19 May 2025.
3. "Wycombe 0–0 Charlton: League One play-off semi-final first leg ends all square". BBC Sport. Retrieved 19 May 2025.
4. "Leyton Orient 2–2 Stockport County: League One play-off semi-final first leg ends level". BBC Sport. Retrieved 19 May 2025.
5. "Charlton Athletic 1–0 Wycombe Wanderers (1–0 agg): Addicks reach League One play-off final". BBC Sport. Retrieved 19 May 2025.
6. "Stockport County 1–1 Leyton Orient (1–4 pens): O's beat Hatters to reach play-off final". BBC Sport. Retrieved 19 May 2025.