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Date | 31 May 1993 | ||||||
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Venue | Wembley Stadium, London | ||||||
Referee | David Elleray (Harrow) | ||||||
Attendance | 73,802 | ||||||
Weather | Sunny | ||||||
The 1993 Football League First Division play-off final was an association football match which was played on 31 May 1993 at Wembley Stadium, London, between Leicester City and Swindon Town. The match was to determine the third and final team to gain promotion from the 1992–93 Football League First Division, the second tier of English football, to the Premier League. The top two teams in the Football League First Division gained automatic promotion to the Premiership, while the teams placed from third to sixth in the table took part in play-off semi-finals; Swindon Town ended the season in fifth position while Leicester City finished sixth. The winners of these semi-finals competed for the final place for the 1993–94 season in the Premiership. Winning the game was estimated to be worth around £5 million to the successful team.
Swindon took a 3–0 lead as they scored three goals in eleven minutes either side of half time. Glenn Hoddle, Swindon's player-manager, opened the scoring late in the first half and early second-half goals from Craig Maskell and Shaun Taylor made it 3–0 after 53 minutes. Leicester's Julian Joachim scored four minutes later, and with further goals from Steve Walsh and Steve Thompson, the score was level at 3–3. With six minutes of the match remaining, the referee David Elleray awarded Swindon a penalty which was converted by Paul Bodin, securing a 4–3 victory. The win saw Swindon promoted to the top tier of English football for the first time in their club's 73-year League history.
Four days after the match, Hoddle was confirmed as player-manager at Chelsea. In their following season, Swindon finished bottom of the Premiership and were relegated back to the second tier having conceded a record 100 goals. Leicester ended their next season in fourth place in the First Division and secured promotion to the Premiership with a 2–1 win over Derby County in the play-off final.
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