Salford City meet Grimsby in the second leg of their League Two Play-Off Semi-Final tie.
With a 2-1 aggregate lead from the first leg, victory or a draw would see Salford advance to the League Two Play-Off Final, which will take place at Wembley Stadium on Bank Holiday Monday 25 May at 3pm.
Grimsby must win by two clear goals to overturn their deficit and reach an EFL Play-Off Final for the third time in their history.
Team News
Jorge Grant is a doubt for Salford after he missed their last two matches due to a knock.
Jay Bird (Achilles), Dan Chesters (ACL) and Michael Rose (leg) remain absent.
Grimsby have no fresh injury concerns to report after the first leg.
Loanee, Tyrell Sellars-Flemming has returned to Hull due to an unspecified injury, so is unavailable for this leg
Evan Khouri, Sam Lavelle (both knee), Cameron Gardner (thigh) and Doug Tharme (hamstring) remain sidelined.
When is Kick-Off?
Salford host Grimsby at Peninsula Stadium on Friday 15 May at 7:15pm BST, live on Sky Sports+ in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Salford won 2-1 in their only previous EFL play-off meeting against Grimsby, which came in the first leg of this semi-final tie.
- Grimsby are making their first visit to Salford in the EFL Play-Offs, but are unbeaten in five of six regular-season visits (W3, D2, L1).
- Salford have failed to score in two of their last three home matches against Grimsby (L3), only doing so in a 2-1 loss in October 2024 in-between 3-0 and 2-0 defeats in December 2023 and October 2025.
- Karl Robinson’s Ammies have won their only previous home leg of an EFL Play-Off semi-final tie (W1), which came in a 1-0 win against Stockport County in 2023 but lost on penalties after a 2-2 aggregate draw following 2-0 away defeat.
- This is Grimsby’s first second leg of a play-off semi-final to be played away – having previously been at home in this specific leg in both of their two previous EFL Play-Off appearances.
Prediction
Having conceded after less than a minute into the first leg, Salford must now avoid making the same error otherwise it basically resets the tie to a straight shootout and hands Grimsby a psychological edge, especially after they fought back to beat the Mariners with two clinical goals.
Grimsby though have to take heart from how well they started the first leg but tighten up defensively if they can get back level on aggregate quickly, as they will need to weather Salford’s high-energy attacks and be clinical themselves if they’re to complete the comeback.
David Artell’s Mariners though have a decent record at Salford in this division so I do expect them to produce a strong performance, yet that first goal will be defining as to how this tie plays out because if Grimsby get ahead then it’s game on otherwise Salford will probably settle for a draw if they take the lead.
Prediction: Salford 1-1 Grimsby
Result: Salford 2-2 (AET) Grimsby (Salford win 4-3 on aggregate)
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