Bolton v Stockport playoff final: Latest ticket sales, odds, what both clubs have said

Ahead of the Bolton v Stockport playoff final, we take a look at the latest ticket sales, odds, and what both clubs have said.

It all comes down to this, who will win promotion from League One and a place in the Championship for the 2026/27 season?

This is the Trotters’ fifth season in the third tier, finishing 9th, 5th, 3rd, 8th and 5th, three of those in the playoffs, one of those they lost in the final, question is, can they seal a return back to the second tier for the first time since being relegated from it in 2019?

For Stockport meanwhile, they’ve not been in the second tier for 24 years, and even found themselves playing in the National League North between 2013 and 2019.

But after a takeover from local businessman Mark Stott, they’ve won promotion from the National League North in 2019, the National League in 2022 and League Two in 2024.

Dave Challinor meanwhile is looking for his third promotion as manager.

TICKET SALES:

Bolton Wanderers said via their website on Saturday (23rd May) that they are set to be cheered on by over 28,000 supporters in the capital.

Stockport County meanwhile said on the website that over 13,000 fans have secured their place at Wembley for Sunday’s final.

Tickets for the game are taken off sale at 2pm on Saturday 23rd May is due to the fact that the ticketing information must be sent over to Wembley Stadium at this point.

28,000 and counting behind us in the capital! 📈✊

Still time to secure your seat at the home of English football and roar on Schumacher’s Whites ⤵️#bwfc

— Bolton Wanderers (@OfficialBWFC) May 21, 2026

ODDS:

Sky Bet – To be promoted
Bolton – 4/5
Stockport – 1/1

BOLTON’S STEVEN SCHUMACHER:

The Bolton boss spoke on the season-long goal and a place back in the Championship for the first time in seven years, as per the club website: “That was the brief at the very start of the season. We want to be in the mix, we want to try and get ourselves into the Championship. We feel as though we’ve earned this right to be in the last game of the season and now it’s about trying to perform to the best of our ability and make sure that we get the job done.

“It will mean everything, it really will. It’s been the objective since I came to the club, to try and get into the Championship, so it’s going to mean so much. But we’ve got a lot of work to do. We know we’re 90 minutes away, potentially, from achieving what we all set out to do and let’s hope we can go and do it.

“They (the players) understand what it looks like. Some have got positive experiences and others have had not positive experiences that they can learn from. We go there with a good mentality, a good frame of mind that we know that if we perform as well as we can, if we stick together as a group, then we’ve got enough in our squad to get the result that we all desperately want.

“It’s a huge credit to the amount of fans that are going down. It’s a Sunday, early kick-off at one o’clock, not easy to get to on a Bank Holiday weekend with train disruption all over the place, so for people travelling down we really appreciate it and we’re going to do our best.”

STOCKPORT’S DAVE CHALLINOR:

As per Bolton’s preview, the Stockport boss said: “It’s the biggest step and the hardest step, but it’s an opportunity, and that’s all you can ask for.

“We’ll take all the pats on the back for getting this far, but we now have the biggest game of the season in front of us, and it’s about how we perform on that day.

“It’s not lost on me how well everyone has done to get us to this situation, but I know that if things don’t go our way and we don’t get promoted, there’s always going to be a sense of disappointment.

“We have a week leading into a game which is nice. It’s a massive occasion to look forward to, but we’re going there to win, and that’s the most important thing.”

Interviewer: “Dave, seven promotions already in your career. How much would it mean to you to get an eighth?”

Dave: “Obviously, it would mean everything, because you I suppose not just me, a whole host of people work so hard and go through so much to give ourselves the opportunity and we’ve got that opportunity. So, we have to do everything now to make sure we do what we can to grab it.

“We know it’ll be um a really a really tough ask but we are where we are on merit, with a massive game with a huge prize at the end of it.”

Interviewer: “County fans have had such a long wait for Championship football a chance to return there for the first time in 24 years. Can you try and talk to me how you’ve been preparing for this because it’s such a big opportunity.”

Dave: “Yeah, it’s a massive opportunity but it is another game, granted there’s more jeopardy and a bigger prize at the end of it than than normal. I suppose over them 24 years I played in the last Championship game that Stockport County played in and from that point on the supporters have been through relegations, promotions, administration, all sorts with the club going back down to or down out of the Football League into the National League North since Mark came in sort of six years ago, everything’s been on the up since then and we’ve got ourselves to to this point and as you say, it’s a massive opportunity we have it in front of us and obviously it would mean everything for us to be able to take it and from my perspective almost go full circle and take the club back to the Championship.”

Interviewer: “I’m sure you could never have imagined all those years ago that you’d be here today having this conversation so close to achieving something like this.”

Dave: “Yeah, I think when when I came here certainly um you’d all say or we’d all be pretty surprised that this is where we’re at, but it was part of what Mark’s and Simon’s plan was when when they came into the into the football club.

“From my own personal perspective, you I suppose go through different phases as a footballer and then once you finish playing, I have decisions to make about how you want to do it. If you’d have told me, I say when I was player manager at Colwyn Bay and and managing in what was a I suppose almost a regionally type division that we or I’d be at a playoff final my sort of fifth visit to to Wembley as a manager playing for a massive prize. Absolutely. Never would that I would have thought that would be the case.

“But we’ve got it on, like I say, on merit. So, we’ll embrace what’s in front of us, look forward to a big game.

“Like I say, we’re pretty early in the week, so your focus can be on what’s in front of us. I’m sure as the game gets closer, the excitement and the little bit of nerves will will kick in, but I suppose we know from being there six weeks what’s that what that feels like and we can enjoy what’s a again a big occasion.”

Interviewer: “You mentioned full circle. It really is full circle with Bolton as well. Match day one and now the final and crucial game.”

Dave: “Yeah. And listen, I think um from my perspective, hopefully it goes on beyond just Sunday’s game, but yeah, to start obviously my career journey here ith the FA Cup tie back in November 2021 to now face Bolton and a playoff final at Wembley, yeah, there’s always things in football that link up, this being a sort of key one.

“We’ve had some brilliant battles and contests over the five years that that I’ve been here, obviously a local rivalry, we were a couple of steps behind them.

“We’ve caught up, but there’s two really really good teams that deserve to be where they are that have got match winners in them and whoever performs on the day has a like I say a big prize of Championship football to play in 26/27.”

See more of what he said in the video above.