League Two playoff predictions and free football tips: Fast-finishing Rovers may have timed their run to perfection

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Doncaster to be promoted
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League Two play-off predictions

Heading into the playoffs as the form side can be much more advantageous than finishing highest over the course of the season, and Doncaster appear to have timed their run to perfection.

Rovers’ five-year stay in League One came to an end in 2022 and a dismal 18th-placed finish back in the fourth tier last season did little to improve the mood among the Donny faithful.

And a paltry return of just two points from their opening seven games of the 2023-24 campaign suggested another season of struggle could be in store for the Yorkshire outfit.

Grant McCann’s side were still languishing in 20th as recently as March but a remarkable 12-game unbeaten run to finish the season, which featured ten straight victories, catapulted them into the top seven.

Donny's winning run featured 2-0 successes over playoff rivals Crewe and Crawley – they also beat promoted Wrexham in that time – so they should approach the post-season with confidence levels sky-high.

Having also defeated MK Dons 3-0 at home at the beginning of January, Rovers have beaten all of their fellow top-seven members, and their upturn in form has been equally built on defensive discipline and a potent frontline.

Rovers may well have won their final 11 games had Thimothee Lo-Tutala not been sent off early in the second half of their 2-2 draw at Gillingham on the final day of the regular season because McCann’s men were two goals to the good at the time. 

But those final 11 matches featured six clean sheets with 28 goals scored and only seven conceded, all of which came despite playing five top-half teams.

That suggests there was no fluke about Doncaster's resurgence and in 22-goal striker Joe Ironside, who netted in the final five matches of the regular season, Rovers have the right man leading their promotion charge.

Doncaster face Crewe in their two-legged semi-final but should be confident of making it to Wembley as the Railwaymen finished the season with only two wins from their final 12 games, failing to score in five of their last seven. 

Lee Bell’s side lost their final three home games 3-0, including against relegated Forest Green and 21st-placed Grimsby, and they have been beset by injuries.

The other semi-final sees MK Dons, the highest-ranked finishers, meet Crawley, who defied all pre-season expectations to seal a seventh-placed finish and playoff berth having been relegation favourites.

It should be an intriguing battle with both favouring a possession-based approach, but Crawley’s record against the other top-seven teams makes for grim reading.

The Red Devils lost eight of their 12 meetings with the six sides who finished aboved them, winning only twice, and they have generally afforded opponents plenty of goalscoring opportunities this season.

That won’t cut it against a free-scoring Dons outfit, who appear the chief threat to Rovers, albeit the gulf between the pair in the promotion betting is difficult to justify.

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