EFL announce key date for Bristol Rovers with next season's League One rivals almost confirmed

Bristol Rovers will learn their 2024/25 League One schedule on Wednesday June 26 with two more of their 23 opponents still set to be confirmed.

One of Bolton Wanderers and Oxford United will remain in the third tier with the pair set to clash at Wembley next Saturday (May 18) in the League One play-off final after progressing past Barnsley and Peterborough United respectively in the semi-finals.

A nervy second leg saw Bolton get over the line largely thanks to their performance in the first leg, winning 3-1 at Oakwell before losing 3-2 at home with former Rovers favourite Aaron Collins scoring a peach of a goal.

As for the U's, a 1-0 home win over Posh in the first leg proved the difference as Des Buckingham's side held on to draw 1-1 at London Road last night as a Cameron Brannagan penalty cancelled out Josh Knight's opener despite the hosts boasting 70 per cent of the possession while having 18 shots to United's five.

The winner of next weekend's final will of course be promoted to the Championship alongside Portsmouth and Derby County while it will be another campaign in the third tier for the loser.

Regarding new faces who have already confirmed their places in League One for the new campaign, Birmingham City's relegation from the Championship was confirmed last weekend, as was Huddersfield Town's although the Terriers went into the final day needing a miracle and more to survive away at Premier League-bound Ipswich Town.

Huddersfield haven't competed in the third tier since 2012 which, at the time, was their eighth consecutive campaign at League One level. Since then, the Yorkshire side managed to reach the promised land of the Premier League for two seasons and were Championship play-off final runners up to Nottingham Forest two seasons ago. The Gas won their last trip to the John Smith's Stadium, winning 1-0 in October 2010 thanks to a late Will Hoskins winner.

However, the drop down a division for Birmingham City is an even bigger story with the Blues last playing outside the top two leagues in the 1994/95 season. Additionally, Birmingham have a high-profile hierarchy which includes NFL legend Tom Brady who have recently shared ambitions to build a new 60,000 capacity stadium.

Rovers' last competitive meeting with Blues was a 2-1 League Cup defeat at the Mem in 2015 but the pair haven't been in the same league since 1995 when Birmingham were promoted from what is now known as League One. However, the last trip to St. Andrew's wasn't all that long ago for Gasheads when Coventry City were tenants in B9 with the pair meeting four times in the 2019/20 season across league and FA Cup.

Matt Taylor's former club Rotherham United will also compete in what is shaping up to be an extremely competitive League One next season with ex-Stevenage boss Steve Evans taking the reigns at the New York Stadium last month with the Millers' relegation confirmed a while ago.

Meetings between Rotherham and the Gas have been more common historically, although the two clubs haven't faced each other in well over four years with the Millers spending three of the last four seasons in the Championship while Rovers had a year in League Two.

On the topic of the fourth tier, Stockport County, Wrexham and Mansfield Town are the trio of clubs that secured automatic promotion and will be making the move up to League One football with it being a considerable amount of time for all three since they last sat this high in the pyramid.

For champions Stockport, it's been 14 years since they were last a third tier club with the Cheshire side experiencing three relegations in four years which meant that spent six seasons in the sixth tier before three promotions in the last six campaigns to get back to League One.

Wrexham also had to spend a significant period of time in non-league after relegation out of the Football League in 2008 which led to 15 seasons in the National League. However, back-to-back promotions over the past two seasons has brought good times back to the North Wales club with the well-documented Hollywood takeover by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney a significant contributing factor. The Red Dragons have also been subject to the popular Disney Plus fly-on-the-wall documentary 'Welcome to Wrexham.'

Rovers haven't played Stockport since the 2009/10 season when they were last in the league together while it's been 17 years since the Gas last faced Wrexham when they were in League Two. Games against Mansfield though have been more common in recent years with the duo facing each other in the fourth tier as recently as 2022 when Rovers secured promotion.

However, for the Stags it's been 21 years since they were last in League One having spent the vast majority of that time in the fourth division alongside five seasons in the National League.

A fourth promoted side will be confirmed next Sunday (May 19) after the League Two play-off final with second legs of the semi-finals still to be played.

Currently, there's a good chance that it will be a Doncaster Rovers vs Crawley Town final after their 2-0 and 3-0 first leg wins over Crewe Alexandra and MK Dons respectively but nothing is confirmed.

Confirmed League One clubs 2024/25

• Barnsley

• Birmingham City

• Blackpool

• Bristol Rovers

• Burton Albion

• Cambridge United

• Charlton Athletic

• Exeter City

• Huddersfield Town

• Leyton Orient

• Lincoln City

• Mansfield Town

• Northampton Town

• Peterborough United

• Reading

• Rotherham United

• Shrewsbury Town

• Stevenage

• Stockport County

• Wigan Athletic

• Wrexham

• Wycombe Wanderers