Bolton vs Oxford United Prediction (18.05.2024)

It's the League One playoff final on Saturday afternoon, and one of Bolton or Oxford will gain promotion to the Championship from this game. The stakes are of course huge, and both teams will have expectant supporters behind them, as they've both sold more than 30,000 tickets for this clash at Wembley.

Bolton started the playoffs as the favourites for promotion, and they finished third in the league standings, the best ranked of the playoff teams. They've got a clinical attacking line up, as we saw when they scored five past Barnsley in two legs of the semi final. But they've conceded goals, and with the way in which Barnsley managed to get at them, Oxford should have a little hope.

But there is no doubting that Bolton have two key ingredients heading into this final, match winners on the field, and experience in big games. They played at Wembley last year, and won, that's a big thing. I also think they've got plenty of match winners on the field, who you would back to take a chance, if they got one.

Oxford finished 5th in the League One table and went into their semi final against Peterborough as underdogs. But they managed to come out on top, winning the first leg at home, before getting a draw away from home and that was enough to see them through. They're now one step away from the second tier of English football.

I think we saw both sides of Oxford in that win over Peterborough. In the first game, they did well with the ball when they had it, and showed some nice attacking intent. In the second game, it was all about protecting what they had and digging in deep to get over the line. It was a real team effort by the entire squad.

A big game, with a lot at stake, and for that reason, I think this will be really tight with limited scoring chances. As for a bet in the game, I think the best bet is to go with this going all the way, so in 90 minutes, I am going to take the draw.