Oldham vs Southend Prediction: Tips & Team News for the National League Play-Off Final

English football pundit Gab Sutton looks ahead to Sunday's National League Play-Off Final, with Oldham and Southend vying to join Barnet in the EFL.

In light of everything, Oldham and Southend fans will be grateful to simply have a sustainable, transparent, sensibly-run football club that will continue to serve its community for decades to come.

Those sentiments may be especially prominent at Roots Hall, where the Shrimpers have had recent dice with death in the latter stages of Ron Martin’s ultimately catastrophic ownership regime, with the Justin Rees consortium saving the club by agreeing on the takeover in October 2023 - although it didn’t all get ratified until July 2024.

At Boundary Park, meanwhile, Abdallah Lemsagam’s ill-fated tenure came to an end in July 2022, with local businessman and Latic Frank Rothwell bringing the club into safe hands.

Both clubs have the ambition to be one that get into, and thrive within, the Football League yet, simultaneously, both are grateful to still be in existence.

York City achieved 96 points this season, which would have been enough to win the title most seasons, but Oldham went to the LNER Stadium and thrashed the Minstermen 3-0 in the Semi-Final, after dispatching Halifax 4-0 in the eliminator.

The Latics’ performances in the post-season add weight to the idea that Micky Mellon’s pragmatic approach translates well to big, one-off games, and the Scot has previous in that regard – he’s won the Play-Offs as a manager at this level before, with Tranmere in 2018-19, en route to successive promotions.

Manny Monthe and James Norwood were both part of that side, and both have pedigree at this level, as do centre-back Charlie Raglan – a League Two title-winner with Cheltenham in 2020-21 – and wing-back Joe Pritchard, who was effective in League One with Accrington Stanley in previous years, hamstrung at the higher level only by injury.

Bringing more youthful energy, meanwhile, is Wales youth prospect Vimal Yoganathan, who is highly-rated at Barnsley, and brought a lot of zest to the Latics press in the Semi-Final victory at York.

National League experts I have spoken to aren’t entirely convinced by Southend – understandable given the rebuilding stage they’re at in the more general sense – and most anticipate a comfortable Oldham win, which can be backed at 6/4 with bet365 (90 minutes).

In theory, Norwood should be a guaranteed starter at National League level, because there’s an argument to say that Barnsley would have beaten Sheffield Wednesday in the League One Play-Off Final in 2023 had he started at the expense of Slobodan Tedic.

So, it’s perhaps surprising that, once Mellon’s star man, ‘Nors’ has only started 14 league games this season, coming off the bench 11 times, but that just shows how influential Mike Fondop-Talum has been.

With 17 goals for the season, the physical 31-year-old poses a major threat from crosses and set pieces, and looks well worth backing at 2/1 to score anytime during 90 minutes.

Oldham vs Southend Team News

Oldham were unchanged from the victory over Halifax last time out, so we can expect no unforced alterations from the side that thumped York on their own turf.

The Latics will have to keep an eye on Southend’s attacking right-back Gus Scott-Morriss, who has been granted plenty of forward licence by head coach Kevin Maher, more so than left-back Nathan Ralph.

Scott-Morriss has scored a remarkable 17 league goals this season, with nobody currently at the club having bagged more than five.

Oldham vs Southend Odds