.jpg) Wembley Stadium | |||||||
| |||||||
| after extra time | |||||||
| Date | 27 May 1996 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venue | Wembley Stadium, London | ||||||
| Referee | David Allison (Lancaster) | ||||||
| Attendance | 73,573 | ||||||
The 1996 Football League First Division play-off final was an association football match which was played on 27 May 1996 at Wembley Stadium, London, between Crystal Palace and Leicester City. The match was to determine the third and final team to gain promotion from the Football League First Division, the second tier of English football, to the Premiership. The top two teams of the 1995–96 Football League First Division season gained automatic promotion to the Premiership, while the clubs placed from third to sixth place in the table took part in play-off semi-finals; the winners of these semi-finals competed for the final place for the 1996–97 season in the Premiership. Crystal Palace ended the season in third position, two places ahead of Leicester City. They beat Charlton Athletic and Stoke City, respectively, in the semi-finals.
The match was played in front of a crowd of 73,573 and was refereed by David Allison from Lancaster. Leicester dominated the early stages of the game but Palace took the lead on 14 minutes with a strike from Andy Roberts. In the 76th minute, Marc Edworthy brought down Muzzy Izzet in the Palace penalty area. Nigel Martyn managed to get a hand to the spot kick but could not stop it going in and levelling the score at 1–1. The game went into extra time and the final minute of the additional period of play, Leicester, anticipating a penalty shootout, substituted in 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) tall goalkeeper Zeljko Kalac. Seconds later, Steve Claridge struck the winning goal from a Julian Watts header, and eleven seconds after that, the referee blew the final whistle. Leicester won 2–1 and gained promotion to the Premier League.
Winning the final marked Leicester City's fifth promotion since they were relegated in the 1968–69 season. In their following season, they finished in ninth place in the Premier League and also won the League Cup. Crystal Palace ended their next campaign in sixth place in the First Division, and were promoted via the play-offs, winning the final 1–0 against Sheffield United with a last-minute goal.