The first half ended goalless, but in the 77th minute, substitute Adebayo Akinfenwa's first action was to help win a corner for Wimbledon, from which Lyle Taylor scored with a low shot past Luke McCormick.

[1] Wimbledon's opponents in their play-off semi-final were Accrington Stanley with the first match of the two-legged tie being played on 14 May 2016 at Kingsmeadow in Greater London.

Midway through the second half, a header from Adebayo Akinfenwa made it 2–1 and with no further change to the scoreline, the game went into extra time.

Lyle Taylor then scored after Etheridge had saved an effort from Jake Reeves, and Wimbledon progressed to the final with a 3–2 aggregate victory.

A strike from the edge of Plymouth's penalty area from Marc McNulty gave the home side a third-minute lead but Jamille Matt equalised six minutes later with a header.

Six minutes after half-time, Peter Hartley fouled McNulty in the box, and Gary Roberts converted the subsequent penalty to make it 2–2.

The home side dominated the game but did not score until injury time in the second half when Hartley converted Graham Carey's corner.

[8] In the 25th minute, Kelvin Mellor almost scored an own goal after deflecting a Wimbledon cross but the ball went wide, and Plymouth cleared the subsequent corner.

After a minute of injury time, the referee blew the whistle to bring the half to an end with the score goalless.

Gregg Wylde became the first player to be booked after being shown the yellow card for a foul on Wimbledon's Barry Fuller in the 63rd minute.

Two minutes later, Carey's curling free kick from around 30 yards (27 m) was saved by Roos, then Darius Charles was booked for a foul on Matt.

Tanner was brought down in the 95th minute but the referee ignored appeals for a penalty from Plymouth before Taylor's weak shot after a one-on-one with McCormick was easily saved by the goalkeeper.