What happens to the team that finishes second?

One of these teams will face heartbreak, but get a second chance at promotion via the play-offs, although that is fraught with danger. Last season, York finished second on 96 points only to suffer defeat to Oldham, a team that finished 26 points behind them.

The fact that one side with over 100 points could miss out lends greater weight to the 3UP campaign which is lobbying for a third team to get promotion from the National League. However, that would require approval from the clubs in the Football League and there seems little appetite from them – particularly those in League Two.

The statistics back the campaign, however. Since the 2023/03 season, when the play-offs were introduced, no team that has gone up from the National League has gone straight back down. Of the 43 teams that have been promoted, 24 have played in League One, six in the Championship – including high-flying Wrexham – while Luton even went into the Premier League.

Rochdale v York: Form and previous meetings

Rochdale have won three of their last six games, with all three of those wins coming via goals in the 90th minute or later, including last weekend’s last-gasp victory at Braintree.

York have won their last five.

The teams have met twice already this season, York winning the home game 4-1 and also emerging 2-1 victors at the Crown Oil Arena in the FA Cup in October.

Rochdale v York: What have the managers said?

Rochdale boss Jimmy McNulty: “The training ground has been busy this week with more media duties than we normally do. The mood among the players is positive, the elation of taking this to the final game, it feels like fate. But they’ve said ‘let’s go, let’s get to work because we want to win this game’. There’s a calm focus on the gameplan, to go and execute it. There’s maximum belief, maximum intent that we can end the fairytale at our stadium with our supporters and be crowned champions. This is an amazing game to be a part of.”

York boss Stuart Maynard: “The same as any other week, we’ve kept it normal. We know the magnitude of the game and we know that from the outside, it will be documented as one of the biggest games in the English football pyramid this weekend. For us, nothing changes, we’ve prepared the same way. We’ve done our research, the management team have been coming up with a game plan on the way that we believe we can hurt them, and the way that we believe they can hurt us. Nothing has changed, it’s the same process going into the game.”