1993 Football League First Division play-off Final

1993 Football League First Division play-off Final

Swindon Town Leicester City 4 3
Date	31 May 1993
Venue	Wembley Stadium, London
Referee	David Elleray (Harrow)
Attendance	73,802

The 1993 Football League First Division play-off Final was contested by Swindon Town and Leicester City at Wembley Stadium, London. Swindon Town won the match 4–3, despite Leicester coming back from 3–0 down.

Eurosport placed the game at #94 on its list of the 100 Greatest football matches of all-time.^[1]

Summary

After a fairly quiet first half, Swindon Town led 1–0 thanks to a goal from player/manager Glenn Hoddle 3 minutes before the break. The match then took off with an exciting second half, just 2 minutes after the restart Craig Maskell put Swindon 2–0 to the good after he finished off a pass from John Moncur, then a header by Shaun Taylor gave Swindon a three-goal advantage six minutes later. At 3–0 Swindon should have been comfortable, but 4 minutes later Julian Joachim pulled one back for Leicester to give them hope. It got better for Leicester as 11 minutes later Steve Walsh scored a header to make it 3–2, and just a minute after that Steve Thompson equalised wrapping up an astonishing come-back by Leicester, scoring 3 goals in 12 minutes. However, it turned out to be in vain, when Swindon were awarded a contentious penalty 6 minutes from time after Kevin Poole was alleged to have brought down Steve White in the area. Paul Bodin converted the penalty to finish the game at 4–3 and sent Swindon to the Premier League, while Leicester were left to rue a second year of misery, having lost in the play-off final thanks to controversial penalty for the second year running.^[2]

Match details

Leicester City v Swindon Town

31 May 1993 15:00 BST

Leicester City	3 – 4	Swindon Town
Joachim  57' Walsh  68' Thompson  69'	Report	Hoddle  42' Maskell  47' Taylor  53' Bodin  84' (pen.)

Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 73,802 Referee: David Elleray (Harrow)

LEICESTER CITY: GK 1 Kevin Poole RB 2 Gary Mills (c) LB 3 Mike Whitlow CB 4 Richard Smith FW 5 Steve Walsh CB 6 Colin Hill RM 7 David Oldfield CM 8 Steve Thompson FW 9 Julian Joachim CM 10 Steve Agnew LM 11 Lee Philpott Substitutes: FW 12 Ian Ormondroyd MF 14 Colin Gibson Manager: Brian Little

SWINDON TOWN: GK 1 Fraser Digby RB 2 Nicky Summerbee LB 3 Paul Bodin CM 4 Glenn Hoddle CB 5 Colin Calderwood (c) CB 6 Shaun Taylor CM 7 John Moncur  88' LM 8 Ross MacLaren FW 9 David Mitchell RM 10 Martin Ling FW 11 Craig Maskell  78' Substitutes: FW 12 Steve White  78' MF 14 Micky Hazard  88' Player/Manager: Glenn Hoddle

MATCH RULES 90 minutes. 30 minutes of extra-time if necessary. Penalty shootout if scores still level. Two named substitutes. Maximum of two substitutions.

Road to Wembley

Swindon Town

First Leg Swindon Town 3–1 Tranmere Rovers Second Leg Tranmere Rovers 3–2 Swindon Town

Leicester City

First Leg[3] Leicester City 1–0 Portsmouth Second Leg Portsmouth 2–2 Leicester City

References

1. EuroSport - Top 100: the complete list
2. Haylett, Trevor (1993-06-01). "The Independent - Football / Play Off: Swindon lifted by Hoddle's husbandry: An unsettling sense of deja vu as Wembley proves an unhappy hunting ground for Leicester". London. Archived from the original on 2009-09-09. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
3. Played at the City Ground, Nottingham