 The match took place at Wembley Stadium. | |||||||
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| Date | 24 May 2015 | ||||||
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| Venue | Wembley Stadium, London | ||||||
| Man of the Match | Jermaine Beckford (Preston) | ||||||
| Referee | Andrew Madley | ||||||
| Attendance | 48,236 | ||||||
The 2015 Football League One play-off final was an association football match which was played on 24 May 2015 at Wembley Stadium, London, between Preston North End and Swindon Town to determine the third and final team to gain promotion from League One to the Championship. The top two teams of the 2014–15 League One season gained automatic promotion to the Championship, while the teams placed from third to sixth place in the table partook in play-off semi-finals; the winners of these semi-finals competed for the final place for the 2015–16 season in the Championship.
It was the first time that Preston had ever been promoted through the play-offs, having failed in their nine previous attempts and losing in all three final appearances. Swindon had won three of their four previous play-off finals. A Wembley Stadium crowd of more than 48,000 people watched the game, which was refereed by Andrew Madley. Preston's Jermaine Beckford, who was on loan from Bolton Wanderers, opened the scoring after four minutes and Paul Huntington doubled the lead on thirteen minutes. Beckford scored again just before the end of the first half, and completed his hat-trick twelve minutes into the second half, becoming the third player to score three or more goals in a play-off final held at Wembley. Despite dominating possession throughout, Swindon were unable to score, and the match ended 4–0 in Preston's favour.
Swindon ended the following season in sixteenth place in League One, fifteen points outside the play-off places and thirteen points above the relegation zone. Preston's next season saw them finish in eleventh place in the EFL Championship, twelve points below the play-offs and twenty-two points above the relegation zone.