Aston Villa v Derby County: Championship play-off final – live!

Aston Villa team news: Albert Adomah starts up front alongside Tammy Abraham and Anwar El Ghazi, while Conor Hourihane gets the nod ahead of Glenn Whelan in midfield. Axel Tuanzebe starts in defence.

Wembley Way: Having had to miserably traipse the few hundred metres from the home of English football to Wembley Park tube station yesterday following Sunderland’s defeat in yesterday’s League One play-off final, your humble reporter can attest that are few more miserable perambulations in English football.

Having said that, listening to fellow supporters trying to pick the positives out of the fact that the concession of a goal with five seconds of added time left means they’ll be playing Lincoln City and Tranmere Rovers for the first time in 20 years was quite funny.

Early Derby team news: Ashley Cole is expected to start at left-back for Derby County, in place of Scott Malone, who is suspended following his dismissal against Leeds United in the semi-final. Craig Forsyth remains sidelined with a serious knee injury – the third of his career – he suffered against Villa in November, while veteran centre-half Curtis Davies is also out.

Frank Lampard made the inspired decision to take off midfielder Duane Holmes a minute before half-time in their semi-final second leg against Leeds and replace him with Jack Marriott. Although the striker scored with his first touch and then went on to bag another, Frank Lampard seems likely to start with Holmes again today.

Early Aston Villa team news: Aston Villa defender Axel Tuanzebe is reported to have recovered from an ankle injury he suffered in the semi-final win over West Brom and should be available for selection. Manager Dean Smith will be without James, Thomas Carroll, Orjan Nyland and Jordan Lyden, who are all longterm absentees.

Smith will also have to choose between Conor Hourihane and Glenn Whelan in central midfield, while one of Andre Green, Albert Adomah and Jonathan Kodjia is likely to start on the right of their front three.

“The league just turned into a cup,” reads the branding on Wembley Way this play-off weekend and for one set of the tens of thousands of Aston Villa and Derby County fans who walk it buoyed with optimism ahead of this winner-takes-all game, the iconic walkway will represent a Boulevard of Broken Dreams on the return trip.

A place in the Premier League and the riches that come with it is up for grabs today, in a match some reports estimate to be worth around £170m to the winners over the next three years. For the losers, there is little more than despair and prospect of another season in the Championship, pondering what might have been. Kick-off is at 3pm (BST), but stay tuned for team news and build-up in the meantime.