Second time lucky for one of Derek Adams and Michael Flynn as Morecambe face Newport County at Wembley

Derek Adams and Michael Flynn have both managed in one League Two play-off final each, and both were on the losing sides, but one will be victorious under the arch on Monday afternoon.

Adams’ Morecambe take on Flynn’s Newport County for a place in League One next season, and whichever manager is victorious will be making history, with neither side having played in their third tier before in their current incarnation.

The old Newport County were in the third tier as recently as the mid-1980s but the club was reformed in 1989 into the club that exists today.

Both sides are managed by relatively young managers, both of whom have had largely successful careers to date. 45-year-old Scotsman Adams has had a deceptively long managerial career, starting 14 years ago, while 40-year-old Welshman Flynn started out just four years ago.

Adams has three promotions under his belt, two with Ross County and one with Plymouth Argyle. Flynn is yet to gain his first promotion but will be keen to change that on Monday afternoon.

It could have been four promotions for Morecambe manager but his side missed out on automatic promotion on the final day of the season after Bolton Wanderers beat Crawley Town. The Shrimps did what they needed to do on the day, but it was out of their hands and Bolton’s win meant the third spot was taken.

Newport finished fifth, just five points behind Morecambe but were able to complete the double over the Lancashire side in the league.

The most recent of those games, back in March, saw the Exiles win 3-1 at the Mazuma Stadium in a game where the main talking point ended up being Kevin Ellison’s celebration, running up to former manager Adams and celebrating in front of him.

Adams had frozen out Ellison at Morecambe during the previous season, and the 42-year-old certainly let his former manager know how he felt about the decision after scoring.

Two of the biggest talking points coming into this game surround the current Morecambe manager. The first is his ‘rematch’ with Ellison, the second is where his future lies.

Adams has one year left on his contract at the Mazuma Stadium but is widely reported to be heading to Bradford City to takeover as manager at Valley Parade.

The Bantams made an approach for the Scotsman midway through the season, but the move did not go through. Now, with the season coming to an end, Bradford are making another attempt to lure their preferred candidate into the hot seat.

These rumours could be seen as a distraction, but it did not seem to put Morecambe off over their play-off semi-final where they beat Tranmere Rovers 3-2 on aggregate after two very good displays.

There were some similarities in those games to the last time Adams was in the League Two play-offs, where his Plymouth Argyle side beat Portsmouth 3-2 on aggregate. Both sides, largely, defended excellently and took their chances where they came.

Adams will be hoping that the final is not of a similar nature to his sides’ final back in 2015/16 however where Argyle were played off the park by AFC Wimbledon in a routine 2-0 win for the Wombles.

He did go on to guide the Devon club to automatic promotion the following season, but if rumours are to be believed, he will not be able to do that at Morecambe next campaign.

Newport’s and Michael Flynn’s previous play-off final was more recent. The Welsh side made it to this stage in 2018/19 but lost after extra-time to Tranmere Rovers who scored in the 119th minute to win the game 1-0.

Newport’s route to the final this time around saw them face Forest Green Rovers in the semi-final. The first-leg was a routine 2-0 victory, but the second-leg was far from routine.

Within eight minutes, Forest Green scored two goals to bring the tie level and just after half-time they went ahead on aggregate, leading 3-0 on the night.

Newport scored twice in quick succession midway through the half to turn the game on its head again, but Forest Green equalised late on to take the game to extra-time.

As with Newport’s last play-off campaign there was a goal in the 119th minute, but this time the goal went in their favour with the County winning 5-4 on aggregate.

Flynn is likely to be the more confident manager ahead of the game given his side beat Morecambe twice this season, but Adams does have a history of promotions on his side.

The Newport manager does have plenty of big-game experience under his belt, however, despite still being relatively new to management, having gained many impressive results against Championship and Premier League sides in cup competitions.

As Newport will know well by now, given their previous play-off experiences, the game will go to extra-time if scores are level after 90 minutes, and then penalties if it is still level after that.

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