A poor Grimsby pass sends Luke Garbutt flying up field to leave Mariners hearts in mouths.

Ryan Graydon picks up the last ball but he can't get it past Reece Staunton, who sends it out for a corner.

Salford looking dangerous now.

Gary Croft
Former Grimsby defender on BBC Radio Humberside

It was a great chance, it was real desperate defending and I'm sure Ryan Graydon had a sight at goal there.

Town were really struggling, but it was a poor effort.

Ooooo!

Kelly N'Mai avoids the Grimsby defenders and sets off a perfect cross for Ryan Graydon whose making a good run into the box.

Graydon's finish is weak though, rolling easily into the goalkeeper's gloves.

Huge opportunity gone begging.

Grimsby's corner is swung into the box and ends up at Jamie Walker's feet after a headed clearance in front of the net.

Walker's first touch is heavy though and the Ammies are able to block his path as he tries to work around the side.

Grimsby just building up the pressure here as Charles Vernam finds Andy Cook in the box but he can't quite get the touch before it's rolling out of play.

Liam Hogan
Former Salford defender on BBC Radio Manchester

You'd be made up with how this game has started if you're both teams. It's been all action.

The Peninsula Stadium isn't particularly large in size but the volume from the crowd is certainly turned all the way up tonight. Though it's visitors Grimsby who create the first chance to shout about.

The ball is stolen in their attacking half to allow Andy Cook to drive forward.

Charles Vernam is in a good position in the box but he isn't spotted and Cook's strike goes well wide to Vernam's despair.

Right then, Grimsby have a bug bear after leg one that they'd love to shed here.

We are under way in our first second leg semi-final of the night.

Notts County v Chesterfield coming up at 20:00 BST.

Image source, Opta

Salford named an unchanged side from their winning one away at Blundell Park.

Grimsby, though, make a triple change to freshen up their front line.

Charles Vernam, Darragh Burns and Jamie Walker all step into the XI as Justin Amaluzor, Jaze Kabia and Clarke Oduor rotate to the bench.

Doug Tharme makes the matchday squad for the first time since January after undergoing surgery for a hamstring injury.

Image source, Opta

Grimsby may have lost the first leg but aside from the score line, statistically they did well.

They won more duels in the air, forced more saves from the keeper, held more possession, took more shots and had close to double the amount of touches in the opponents box (30 to Salford's 17).

The Ammies do hold on to a good, solid league home record but Grimsby were one of the five teams to beat their hosts at The Peninsula this season.

Disadvantaged? Maybe so but that doesn't seem to have rattled Mariners winger Justin Amaluzor.

"Deep down I'm determined to right our wrongs," Amaluzor told BBC Radio Humberside. "We should have won that game.

"I'm a very confident person and I'm ready to go. If you don't believe in yourself, no one will believe in you.

"We have nothing to lose. It's a one-game shootout to book our place at Wembley. Football is always going to give you pressure, but it's amazing to have all this resting on one game.

"There's no point us feeling sorry for ourselves, we've got another game to play - a massive game."

Read more on what Amaluzor had to say here.

An away win in the first leg of the play-offs is always going to provide room for optimism, but in Salford City's case there's even more reason to feel confident.

They have the third best home record in League Two, averaging two points per game at The Peninsula Stadium and winning their past seven successively.

They've even kept clean sheets in five of those seven and do so tonight and they'll be on their way to Wembley.

"I think when you have records like that, you feel very confident," Haji Mnoga told BBC Radio Manchester.

"The fans as well have been brilliant at home. They've got behind us, they've helped us out a lot. I think that's been a massive part of it.

"When everyone is trying to make it feel like a fortress - the players, the fans, the staff, everyone that's involved - I think that really helps.

"The gaffer was saying to us [at Grimsby], he didn't want to lose, he didn't want to draw, he wanted to win.

"We were able to go and do that, so it's our advantage. But we can't get too ahead of that because it's only 2-1, one goal to us. We have to go out and make another statement."

Read more on what Mnoga had to say here.

Image source, Opta

• Salford City won the first leg of this tie 2-1, after losing both regular season meetings with Grimsby Town – the last team to win both legs of an EFL play-off semi-final tie against a side who did the double over them in the regular season were Northampton Town vs Cheltenham in League Two in 2012-13 (Notts County could also do this in tonight's other fixture).
• Grimsby Town are unbeaten in each of their past five away games against Salford City (W3 D2), since a 1-0 loss in League Two in September 2019.
• Salford City stayed unbeaten and won six of their final seven home games in the League Two regular season (D1), beating champions Bromley 2-0 in their most recent; meanwhile no team kept more clean sheets on home turf in the fourth tier than the Ammies (10).
• Only MK Dons (45) scored more away goals in the 2025-26 League Two regular season than Grimsby Town (33), who also picked up the most away victories in 2026 in the fourth tier (P12 W7 D2 L3).
• Salford City’s only previous home EFL play-off game came against Stockport County in 2022-23, winning 1-0 in the first leg but failing to reach the final after a penalty shootout loss in the 2nd leg – meanwhile manager Karl Robinson is winless in his past three play-off home matches (D1 L2).
• Grimsby Town have never been eliminated from an EFL play-off campaign at the semi-final stage, reaching the third-tier final in 1998 and the fourth-tier final in 2006 – this is the first time they will have to come from behind to progress through the semi-finals, however.
• Grimsby’s Reece Staunton scored the third-quickest goal in League Two this season in the first leg, netting after 24 seconds. He’s now been involved in five goals in his past six appearances (1 goal, 4 assists).
• Salford’s Luke Garbutt has three assists in his past four League Two appearances and across the last three seasons he has more League Two assists than any other Ammies player (15).

Image source, Getty Images

Grimsby made the perfect start through Reece Staunton's volley after just 26 seconds but it wasn't their day after that.

Kallum Cesay levelled for the visitors and though the Mariners dominated the possession stats, they go into tonight's second leg a goal adrift after a controversial winner from Adebola Oluwo.

The keeper might have been unsighted as it went in but Grimsby will need to keep their vision clear as they aim to pull the score back on the road.

Read more about what happened at Blundell Park on Sunday here.

BBC Local Radio

Broadcast rights mean we cannot bring you audio commentary of today's games online.

But if you live in the areas covered by the stations, you can access BBC Radio Humberside, BBC Radio Manchester, BBC Radio Sheffield and BBC Radio Nottingham commentary via the normal means.

We will also bring you a flavour of the radio analysis to go alongside our live text coverage here, so you won't miss out.

By the end of tonight, we will know our full line-up for play-off mayhem at Wembley Stadium later on this month (well, unless Spygate turns sour for Southampton in the Championship).

Here are the upcoming second-leg fixtures and the dates for the finals:

Championship

• Saturday, 23 May: Hull City v Southampton, final at Wembley (16:30 BST)

League One

• Sunday, 24 May: Stockport v Bolton, final at Wembley (13:00 BST)

League Two

• Friday, 15 May: Salford v Grimsby (2-1 on agg, 19:15 BST)
• Friday, 15 May: Notts County v Chesterfield (1-0 on agg, 20:00 BST)
• Monday, 25 May: Final at Wembley (15:00 BST)

Image source, Shutterstock

The EFL play-off semi-finals have been full of controversy and spectacle and it deserves a huge send off, don't you think?

Tonight kicks off with Grimsby hoping to right the wrongs of the weekend after a suspect winner for Salford on the Mariners home turf leaves them a goal adrift.

While Chesterfield also have a one goal deficit to bounce back from on the road as they visit Notts County a little later on.

We've got all the build-up coming your way.