TEZGEL COULD BE LINING UP AGAINST FAMILIAR FACE IN PROMOTION PUSH
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EMRE Tezgel can prepare for the League Two play-offs and he might yet be up against his Stoke City club-mate David Okagbue.
Tezgel, aged 18, has been gradually finding his feet at MK Dons and he has two assists and two goals in his last four appearances as they have clinched a spot in the top seven.
The top three automatic promotion places are out of reach - Nick Powell’s Stockport County are up as champions, Aden Flint’s Mansfield Town are also up and James Mcclean and Steven Fletcher’s Wrexham have booked their place in League One too - but they are runaway in fourth and sure of the spot in the end of season showdown.
It remains to be seen who will join them with six teams still in contention for the remaining three places going into the final round of fixtures on Saturday. Bradford, currently in 10th and four points behind seventh-placed Crawley, and Doncaster, in eighth and level on points with Crawley, have crucial games in hand in midweek away at Barrow and Colchester respectively.
Centre-half Okagbue, aged 20, will go into the last day hoping they can gatecrash the party. His Walsall side are currently ninth on 65 points, two points adrift of Crawley as things currently stand. Fellow centre-half Matt Baker, on loan at Newport County, has a less dramatic finish in mid-table.
Tezgel and MK will take on whoever lands in seventh over two legs in the first week of May. The play-off final will take place on May 19.
Tezgel said after a 5-3 win at Harrogate on Saturday: “As a striker, a forward player, I want to be scoring goals, it feels good to be contributing. Everyone has to stand up. When some players aren’t playing, you’ve got to stand up and score goals. It was nice to get three of them in the secondhalf.
“It doesn’t matter who we play, we’ve got a massive amount of confidence in the team at the moment, we believe in ourselves and the way we play.”
Over in Belgium, D’margio Wright-phillips has sealed the title as well as promotion at Beerschot.
The 22-year-old forward has made quite the impression since making the switch to Dirk Kuyt’s team in early February and he’s scored four times in all to help them get over the line.
“What a time in Belgium boys,” he wrote on Instagram. “Champions.”
It has been a chance for Wrightphillips to play regularly and put himself in the shop window
- or catch the attention of Steven Schumacher - as his Stoke contract is due to expire this summer.