Oliver Norwood scored the only goal of the game as Stockport County booked their spot in the EFL Trophy final with a 1-0 win over Doncaster Rovers.

The midfielder's early free-kick in a dominant first-half display was enough to send Stockport, twice losing finalists in this competition, in 1992 and 1993, to Wembley next month, where they will play the winner of Wednesday's other semi-final, between Luton Town and Northampton Town.

Doncaster boss Grant McCann made nine changes for the semi-final from the side that lost 4-0 to Cardiff at the weekend, and his team were thoroughly outclassed in the first half, relying heavily on a string of saves from goalkeeper Zander Clark to keep them in the tie.

Despite making four changes at half-time, McCann's side failed to carve out any real chances in the second period, with the Hatters easing into the final at the expense of their League One rivals.

Stockport took the lead after 11 minutes, when Norwood fired his free-kick straight through a static Rovers wall and past the diving Clark into the bottom right-hand corner.

The visitors had a series of chances to double their lead, with both Josh Stokes and Kyle Wootton lashing first-time efforts wide, before Lewis Bate forced Clark into a good save from 12 yards.

Norwood then had another opportunity to get on the scoresheet, with a free-kick in a similar position to his goal, but chose to go for the other corner and the stretching Clark produced an excellent fingertip save to push the ball over the bar.

The Scot was called into action again on the half-hour mark, when Tom Nixon made a mess of clearing a Stokes cross, allowing Adama Sidibeh to steal possession, but Clark was out quickly to narrow the angle and turn the striker's close-range effort wide.

Clark then pulled off a magnificent double save to first stop Sidibeh's low effort before leaping up to get a strong hand to Bate's follow-up.

The four half-time changes by McCann certainly helped as the hosts improved dramatically after the break, but they still struggled to create any clear-cut opportunities.

Indeed, County went close to doubling their lead through Sidibeh's low effort from a tight angle that whistled just wide, before Norwood failed to hit the target from around 12 yards out.

Clark was on hand to thwart the visitors again late on, producing a stop to deny substitute Tanto Olaofe, before saving from Roman Dixon and Odin Bailey as Dave Challinor's side saw the game out to book their trip to Wembley.

Doncaster Rovers manager Grant McCann told Radio Sheffield:

"They were too good for us in the first half. Way too good for us. They were more physical than us, picked up more second balls than us, ran more than us, they had more pace in their team than us.

"We have conceded off something we know Oli Norwood is really good at, and we prepped the players on that. We said 'Don't give any cheap free-kicks away' and then we do and then we are not brave enough in the wall.

"I was delighted to get in at 1-0. It could have been four or five in the first-half, the amount of chances they had.

"At Rotherham I made three changes, Saturday I was thinking about two or three changes, and tonight I've made four [at half-time], and that's something we need to look at - the reason why we are starting games so slow. why we aren't getting out of the blocks quick enough.

"Second half we were better – we were more competitive – although we lacked that little bit of quality to get that goal. We didn't do enough tonight to get ourselves into the final."