1996 Football League First Division play-off Final

1996 Football League First Division play-off final

Leicester City Crystal Palace 2 1
after extra time
Date	27 May 1996
Venue	Wembley Stadium, London
Referee	D. Allison (Lancaster)
Attendance	73,573

The 1996 Football League First Division play-off Final was a football match played at Wembley Stadium, London on May 27 1996 at the end of the 1995–96 season. The match determined the third and final team to gain promotion from First Division to the Premiership, and was contested by Leicester City, who finished fifth during the league season, and Crystal Palace, who finished third. The teams reached the final by defeating Stoke City and Charlton Athletic respectively in the two-legged semi-finals.

It was Leicester's fourth Football League First Division play-off final in five years, having lost to Blackburn Rovers and Swindon Town and beaten local rivals Derby County in three consecutive finals in 1992, 1993 and 1994. Crystal Palace had also been in the play-off final at this level before, also playing Blackburn Rovers, and beating them 4–3 on aggregate in 1989.

Summary

After a shaky start from both teams, Crystal Palace took the early advantage, netting after just 14 minutes thanks to a drilled effort from Andy Roberts. The game ebbed and flowed for the remainder of the half, with just the single goal separating the sides at half-time. Leicester came out fighting in the second half, with Steve Walsh seeing an attempt saved off the line just after the break. Their persistence eventually paid off after Marc Edworthy brought down Muzzy Izzet in the area and Garry Parker converted the resulting spot-kick with 15 minutes of regulation time left to play. The game ended 1-1 at 90 minutes and went into extra-time. The biggest talking point of extra-time came with just seconds to go; Martin O'Neill sent on his substitute goalkeeper Željko Kalac, expecting the 6 ft 7in keeper to be a better bet at saving penalties than Kevin Poole. Immediately following the resumption of play, a long free-kick was only partially cleared by the Crystal Palace defence and the ball came back out to an unmarked Steve Claridge on the edge of the Palace box. Claridge then shinned home the winner from 20 yards past the hapless Nigel Martyn with just 2 seconds of extra-time left to play. Some Crystal Palace players later admitted they were put off by the substitution, though O'Neill admitted that was never the intention.^[1]

Match details

Leicester City v Crystal Palace

27 May 1996 15:00 BST

Leicester City	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Crystal Palace
Parker  76' (pen.) Claridge  120'	Report	Roberts  14'

Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 73,573 Referee: David Allison (Lancaster)

Leicester City

Crystal Palace

LEICESTER CITY: GK 1 Kevin Poole  119' RB 2 Simon Grayson CB 4 Julian Watts CB 5 Steve Walsh (c) LB 3 Mike Whitlow RM 10 Garry Parker CM 6 Muzzy Izzet CM 7 Neil Lennon LM 8 Scott Taylor CF 11 Emile Heskey CF 9 Steve Claridge Substitutes: FW 12 Mark Robins GK 13 Zeljko Kalac  119' DF 14 Colin Hill Manager: Martin O'Neill

CRYSTAL PALACE: GK 1 Nigel Martyn RWB 7 Darren Pitcher CB 2 Marc Edworthy CB 3 Kenny Brown CB 10 Dave Tuttle (c) LWB 5 Rob Quinn CM 6 David Hopkin CM 4 Andy Roberts CM 8 Ray Houghton CF 9 Dougie Freedman CF 11 George Ndah Substitutes: MF 12 Carl Veart MF 13 Simon Rodger FW 14 Bruce Dyer Manager: Dave Bassett

MATCH RULES 90 minutes. 30 minutes of extra-time if necessary. Penalty shootout if scores still level. 3 named substitutes. Maximum of 3 substitutions.

Road to Wembley

Leicester City

First Leg Leicester City 0–0 Stoke City Second Leg Stoke City 0–1 Leicester City

Crystal Palace

First Leg Charlton Athletic 1–2 Crystal Palace Second Leg Crystal Palace 1–0 Charlton Athletic

References

1. Claridge's climax shatters Palace