Bolton Wanderers force EFL u-turn ahead of play-off final v Stockport County | OneFootball

Bolton Wanderers will wear their famous white home shirt for the League One play-off final against Stockport County after a battle with the EFL.

Bolton Wanderers take on Stockport County in the League One play-off final on Sunday afternoon.

Bolton began the season as one of the automatic promotion favourites in the third tier, but too many draws during the regular season prevented them from seriously challenging for the top two, with Steven Schumacher's men eventually finishing in fifth place, 16 points behind second-placed Cardiff City and 28 points behind champions Lincoln City.

However, the Trotters booked their place at Wembley with a 2-0 aggregate victory over Bradford City in their play-off semi-final, with Xavier Simons' 81st-minute strike in the second leg at the University of Bradford Stadium sealing Wanderers' progression to their second final in three seasons.

Like Bolton, Stockport also had ambitions of automatic promotion at the start of the season, and while they also fell significantly short of that objective, they did at least finish two points higher than Sunday's opponents in third place.

The Hatters comfortably swept Stevenage aside in their play-off semi-final with a 3-0 win on aggregate, with goals from Louie Barry and Kyle Wootton in the second leg at Edgeley Park ensuring a Wembley return for Dave Challinor's men, just over a month after their EFL Trophy final defeat to Luton Town.

As Bolton and Stockport prepare to face each other under the arch this weekend with a place in the Championship at stake, Bolton have already secured a victory ahead of the game over which kit they will be wearing on the big day.

EFL make Bolton Wanderers u-turn ahead of Stockport County play-off final

Of course, Bolton will be hoping to win the battle on the pitch against Stockport on Sunday and achieve promotion to the Championship, but a report from The Bolton News has revealed that they have clashed with the EFL in the build up to the game.

The Trotters are classed as the 'home team' for the final at Wembley as they come first alphabetically, but the team that finished higher in the table during the regular season gets the first choice of what kit to wear for the final, presenting the Lancashire outfit with a problem.

Wanderers spent much of the season sitting in third place, but their 3-2 home defeat to Luton Town on the final day of the regular campaign saw them surrender that position to Stockport, meaning they no longer had control over picking their colours for their trip to the capital.

With the Hatters opting to wear their blue home shirt, the EFL had reportedly been keen for Bolton to wear their pink away strip, just as they did on the opening weekend of the season, when they were beaten 2-0 at Edgeley Park.

However, with the Trotters determined to create a "White Wall" among their large following at Wembley, they went to great lengths to get the ruling overturned, just as they had done successfully for previous games against Wigan Athletic and Bristol Rovers.

With traditional and commercial factors driving Wanderers' desire to wear white, the club argued that Stevenage, who finished in sixth place, wore their white kit against Stockport in their play-off semi-final, while they even produced an AI image of Simons and Wootton next to each other to prove that there would not be a clash between the two sides' home kits.

Those efforts were ultimately rewarded, with the EFL giving Bolton the green light to wear their white home shirt at Wembley on Sunday, and the Hatters did not express any objections to that decision.

Bolton Wanderers will have one big advantage against Stockport County at Wembley

Bolton will be delighted that they are allowed to wear their traditional colours for Sunday's play-off final, and with their supporters expected to significantly outnumber Stockport's travelling contingent, they could have a big advantage for the Wembley showdown.

The Trotters have remarkably sold more than 28,000 tickets for the game, and the club are not ruling out potentially hitting the 30,000 mark, while, in contrast, the Hatters have sold just over 13,000 tickets so far, despite being given an allocation of 22,000.

Wanderers have experienced their fair share of play-off heartbreak in recent times, including losing to Oxford United in the final two years ago, but Stockport have suffered two defeats at Wembley in the past three years, so it could come down to who is able to handle the pressure of the occasion and banish their painful previous memories.