 The match took place at Wembley Stadium. | |||||||
| Event | 2011–12 Football League Two | ||||||
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| Date | 27 May 2012 | ||||||
| Venue | Wembley Stadium, London | ||||||
| Referee | Craig Pawson | ||||||
| Attendance | 24,029 | ||||||
| Weather | Hot | ||||||
The 2012 Football League Two play-off final was an association football match played on 27 May 2012 at Wembley Stadium, London, between Cheltenham Town and Crewe Alexandra. The match determined the fourth and final team to gain promotion from Football League Two, English football's fourth tier, to Football League One. The top three teams of the 2011–12 Football League Two season gained automatic promotion to League One, while those placed from fourth to seventh in the table took part in play-off semi-finals; the winners of these semi-finals competed for the final place for the 2012–13 season in League One. Cheltenham Town finished in sixth place while Crewe Alexandra ended the season in seventh position. Southend United and Torquay United were the losing semi-finalists, being defeated by Crewe and Cheltenham respectively.
The referee for the match was Craig Pawson which kicked off around 3 p.m. in front of a crowd of 24,029. In the 15th minute, Nick Powell scored to put Crewe 1–0 ahead: Kelvin Mellor found Powell, who beat a defender by flicking the ball up before striking a volley into the Cheltenham net from around 20 yards (18 m). Jeff Goulding's long-range shot then struck the Crewe crossbar before rebounding to Ben Burgess who missed the target. In the 25th minute, Goulding struck Burgess' flick-on into the Crewe net but the goal was disallowed for offside. Byron Moore's 81st minute shot was just wide of the Cheltenham's right-hand goalpost but a minute later his shot into the bottom-corner of the net after exchanged passes with A-Jay Leitch-Smith made it 2–0. Crewe won the match and gained promotion to League One.
Crewe ended their following season in thirteenth position in the League One table. Cheltenham finished in fifth place in League Two in their next season and qualified for the play-offs where they lost in the semi-finals to Northampton Town.