Earlier in the season, Scunthorpe had already played at the renovated Wembley Stadium in the Football League Trophy Final, where they lost 3–2 to Luton Town after extra time. Millwall had played in League One since being relegated in the 2005–06 season. They had qualified for play-offs four times since the inception of the post-season competition but had failed to progress beyond the semi-finals on any occasion. In the two games between the sides during the regular season, Scunthorpe had won both, with a 3–2 victory at home in October 2008 and a 2–1 win at the New Den the following January. Scunthorpe's top scorer for the regular season was Gary Hooper with 28 goals (24 in the league and 4 in the FA Cup) followed by Hayes with 16 (all in the league). Alexander led the scoring charts for Millwall with 13 goals (11 in the league, 2 in the FA Cup) followed by Harris on 10 (8 in the league, 2 in the FA Cup). The referee for the match was the 23-year-old Michael Oliver. The day before the League One play-off final, his father, Clive Oliver, refereed the League Two play-off final. It was anticipated by Mikey Stafford in The Observer that around 45,000 Millwall supporters would attend the match, outnumbering their opposition fans by four-to-one. The match was broadcast live in the UK on Sky Sports. Millwall were considered narrow favourites to win promotion according to bookmakers. Scunthorpe's Hooper was expected to be fit following a groin injury but Ben May was unavailable with a damaged thigh. Summary The match kicked off around 1p.m. on 24 May 2009 in front of 59,661 spectators. In the 6th minute, Sparrow put Scunthorpe ahead with a right-footed shot into the top-left corner of the Millwall goal from around . Four minutes later, Scunthorpe's Sam Togwell became the first player to be shown a yellow card for unsporting behaviour. On 16 minutes, Sparrow was also booked, also for unsporting behaviour. Alexander levelled the match with a long-range strike in the 37th minute. Two minutes later, Alexander doubled his tally with a header into the bottom-left corner of the Scunthorpe goal from . The referee blew the whistle to signify half-time with the score at 2–1. Millwall made the first substitution of the match at the interval when Abdou was replaced by Marc Laird. Nine minutes later, Scunthorpe's Togwell was substituted