An estimated 100,000-strong travelling army of Yorkshire football fans are expected to descend on north London this weekend as the Football League season reaches its now customary dramatic conclusion with the play-off finals.

For the first time, three clubs from the White Rose county will be competing in the promotion deciders with Hull City hoping to earn a place in the Premier League by beating Bristol City tomorrow before Doncaster Rovers and Leeds United go head-to-head in the League One final 24 hours later.

Unlike Welland's hyperbolic boast from 1981 that "the British are coming" after his film 'Chariots of Fire' had scooped a host of Oscars, this weekend's Tykes invasion will bear fruit with at least one – and, hopefully, two – clubs from the Broad Acres emerging triumphant from what is certain to be a tension-packed couple of days.

Either way, new ground will be broken with neither Hull nor Doncaster having ever been to Wembley since the original Twin Towers were built in the 1920s.

In contrast to their Yorkshire rivals, Leeds played at the old stadium nine times before and Gary McAllister, captain on that last visit for the 1996 League Cup final defeat to Aston Villa, will be hoping past experience will count in the club's favour.

Yorkshire football has, of course, a long and chequered history at Wembley with nine of our League clubs having played under the Twin Towers in a variety of competitions ranging from the long-forgotten Mercantile Credit Football Festival to the FA Cup final.

Tears have flowed both in joy and despair, reputations have been forged and broken, while dreams have been made and shattered. Not for nothing was the old Empire Stadium known as the 'Venue of Legends' throughout its later years.

Every fan who has made the long trip south to watch their club will have a particular memory of their day out.

It could be the moment their captain held a trophy aloft, as Bradford City's Eddie Youds did after the 1996 Second Division play-off final when the Bantams beat Notts County 2-0. Twelve months earlier, Huddersfield Town fans had a similar sense of pride and jubilation when Lee Sinnott held the trophy aloft after Bristol Rovers had been beaten at the national stadium.

The flipside to these two play-off successes for the White Rose county – and York City's triumph in the 1993 Third Division decider – was the gut-wrenching disappointment suffered by Barnsley in 2000 and Sheffield United three years earlier when they missed out on a place in the top flight. For the Blades, their misery was deepened further by the only goal of that defeat to Crystal Palace coming in the final minute when David Hopkin scored with a 30-yard shot.

All manner of competitions have been staged at Wembley and there has been plenty of Yorkshire interest with the likes of Guiseley and Scarborough having trodden the famous turf in the FA Vase and FA Trophy respectively plus North Ferriby losing 3-0 to Whitby in 1997.

Middlesbrough also made it to a Full Members Cup final where they lost to Chelsea in 1990, while a couple of years earlier Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday were among the 16 sides who, through their league form, had earned a place at the finals of a competition staged to celebrate the Football League's centenary.

Due to the number of matches to be played, the Mercantile Credit first and second round ties were restricted to just 40 minutes and Leeds bowed out at the opening hurdle by losing 3-0 to Nottingham Forest. Wednesday, meanwhile, battled through to the final where they lost 3-2 on penalties to Forest.

Leeds did fare rather better in the Charity Shield when an Eric Cantona hat-trick sealed a thrilling 4-3 victory over Liverpool in 1992, 18 years on from the first meeting between the two clubs in the season's traditional opener that is perhaps best remembered for Kevin Keegan and Billy Bremner being sent off.

It is, however, the FA Cup that more readily springs to mind when mention is made of Wembley. From the moment the stadium opened in 1923 amid chaotic scenes as an estimated 200,000 watched Bolton beat West Ham 2-0 there is little doubt that the Cup and Wembley became synonymous.

Sheffield United were the first White Rose visitors two years after that opening fixture with Blades fans being followed through the turnstiles on subsequent Cup finals days by supporters from city rivals Wednesday, Leeds and Huddersfield.

The re-built Wembley is, of course, yet to boast a history as rich as its predecessor. Already, though, it has proved to be no less a dramatic stage for Yorkshire football with Barnsley's Kayode Odejayi having earned his place in folklore for all the wrong reasons courtesy of 'that' FA Cup semi-final miss against Cardiff City.

The players representing the trio of White Rose clubs in the capital this weekend will be hoping their own memories of a Yorkshire invasion at Wembley will be much sweeter.

Pick up your free 12-page play-off pull-out in Friday's Yorkshire Post.