The 2018 EFL League Two play-off Final was an association football match played on 28 May 2018 at Wembley Stadium, London, between Coventry City and Exeter City. The match determined the fourth and final team to gain promotion from EFL League Two, English football's fourth tier, to EFL League One. The top three teams of the 2017–18 EFL League Two season gained automatic promotion to League One, while the teams 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 2018–19 season in League One. Exeter finished in fourth place while Coventry ended the season in sixth position. Lincoln City and Notts County were the losing semi-finalists.
The game, which was refereed by David Webb, was played on a hot sunny day in front of a crowd of 50,196. After a goalless first half, Coventry took the lead four minutes into the second half through Jordan Willis. Five minutes later they doubled their lead with a goal from Jordan Shipley. Midway through the half, Jack Grimmer made it 3–0 to Coventry. Kyle Edwards scored a consolation goal in the closing minutes of the game, but Coventry won 3–1 to earn promotion to the 2018–19 EFL League One. It was their first promotion for 51 years since being guided by Jimmy Hill into the 1967–68 Football League First Division. Marc McNulty, the Coventry striker was named the man of the match.
Three days after the final, the Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale left the club after twelve years, having failed to agree a new contract. At the time of his departure, he was the longest serving manager in English football's top four divisions. Exeter's new manager and former player Matt Taylor led them to ninth place in the 2018–19 League Two table in their next season, two places and a single point below the play-off positions. In their following season, Coventry finished in eighth place in the 2018–19 League One table, two places and eight points outside the play-offs.
Route to the final
Exeter City were playing their sixth consecutive season in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system, having been relegated from EFL League One in 2012. They had missed out on promotion the previous season, losing to Blackpool in the 2017 EFL League Two play-off final. For Coventry City it was their first season in the league's bottom tier since the 1958–59 season, following relegation from League One in 2017. They had, however, played in a Wembley final the previous season, winning the 2017 EFL Trophy Final. Exeter finished the regular 2017–18 season in fourth place in League Two, two places ahead of Coventry. Both therefore missed out on the three automatic places for promotion to League One and instead took part in the play-offs to determine the fourth promoted team. Exeter City finished four points behind Wycombe Wanderers (who were promoted in third place), eight behind Luton Town (who finished second) and thirteen behind league winners Accrington Stanley. Coventry City ended the season in sixth, two places and five points behind Exeter.
Coventry City's opponents in the play-off semi-finals were Notts County and the first leg was played on 12 May 2018 at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. Described by the BBC's Ged Scott as an "exciting tussle, which produced an ultimately fair result", the match ended 1–1. After a goalless first half, Jonathan Forte put the visitors into the lead on 49 minutes. With three minutes of the match remaining, Matt Tootle was adjudged to have fouled Tom Bayliss and Marc McNulty scored the resulting penalty to level the tie. The second semi-final leg took place six days later at Meadow Lane in Nottingham. Coventry dominated the first half with Maxime Biamou opening the scoring with a bicycle kick on six minutes. McNulty then doubled the visitors' lead eight minutes before the break, before Jorge Grant pulled one back for Notts County a minute before half time. Biamou scored his second and Coventry's third mid-way through the second half, and a deflected shot from Bayliss made it 4–1 to Coventry. This meant they progressed to the play-off final, winning 5–2 on aggregate.