1994 Football League Second Division play-off final

1994 Football League Second Division play-off Final

The final took place at Wembley Stadium.
Event	1993–94 Football League Second Division
Burnley Stockport County 2 1
Date	29 May 1994
Venue	Wembley Stadium, London
Referee	David Elleray
Attendance	44,806
← 1993 1995 →

The 1994 Football League Second Division play-off Final was an

The referee for the match, which was played in front of 44,806 spectators, was David Elleray. Chris Beaumont opened the scoring for Stockport in less than two minutes, when he headed David Frain's free kick into the Burnley goal. In the 14th minute, Ted McMinn won the ball from Stockport's Mick Wallace who reacted: first he fouled McMinn and then spat at him, earning himself a straight red card from Elleray. In the 29th minute, David Eyres beat three Stockport defenders before striking the ball past John Keeley to score his 28th goal of the season, and levelling the score at 1–1. In the 60th minute, Beaumont stamped on Les Thompson's calf and was shown a straight red card. Midway through the second half, Gary Parkinson took possession of a loose ball and struck a low shot from the edge of the Stockport penalty area past Keeley, making it 2–1 to Burnley who gained promotion to the First Division.

Burnley ended their next season in 22nd place in the First Division, two places and eight points below safety, and were relegated back to the Second Division. Stockport's following season saw them finish in eleventh position in the Second Division.

Route to the final

Stockport County finished the regular 1993–94 season in fourth position in the Football League Second Division, the third tier of the English football league system, two places and twelve points ahead of Burnley. Both therefore missed out on the two automatic places for promotion to the First Division and instead took part in the play-offs, along with Plymouth Argyle and York City, to determine the third promoted team. Stockport County finished three points behind Port Vale (who were promoted in second place) and four points behind league winners Reading.^[1]

Burnley's opponents for their play-off semi-final were Plymouth Argyle with the first match of the

Stockport faced York City in their semi-final and the first leg was held at Bootham Crescent in York on 15 May 1994. The home side missed several chances to take the lead while Mike Flynn's header for Stockport was cleared off the York goal-line, and the match ended 0–0.^[2] The second leg was played three days later at Edgeley Park in Stockport. After a goalless first half, Chris Beaumont received a pass from Jim Gannon before taking the ball round Dean Kiely, the York goalkeeper, to score in the 85th minute. With no further goals, the match ended 1–0 and Stockport went through to the final with the same aggregate score.^[3]

Match

Background

This was Stockport County's fourth appearance in the play-offs, having failed to make it past the semi-finals in

The referee for the match was David Elleray. Burnley played as a 4–5–1 formation while Stockport adopted a 4–4–2.^[7]

Summary

The match kicked off around 3 p.m. on 29 May 1994 at Wembley Stadium in front of 44,806 spectators.^[9] Beaumont opened the scoring in less than two minutes, when he headed David Frain's free kick into the Burnley goal. Ten minutes later, Francis challenged John Keeley just outside the Burnley penalty area: Francis injured his knee ligaments, was shown a yellow card and had to be substituted for Andy Farrell. In the 14th minute, Ted McMinn won the ball from Stockport's Mick Wallace who reacted: first he fouled McMinn and then spat at him, earning himself a straight red card from Elleray. McMinn was also booked for retaliation. In the 29th minute, David Eyres beat three Stockport defenders before striking the ball past Keeley to score his 28th goal of the season, and levelling the score at 1–1. Eyres also hit the frame of the Stockport goal twice as well as seeing another chance defended.^[8]

Neither side made any changes to their personnel at half time. In the 60th minute, Beaumont stamped on Les Thompson's calf and was shown a straight red card. Midway through the second half, Gary Parkinson took possession of a loose ball and struck a low shot from the edge of the Stockport penalty area past Keeley, making it 2–1 to Burnley. Despite being down to nine players, Stockport still had chances to score, Lee Todd shooting over the bar from around 8 yards (7.3 m) and Gannon missing the target from even closer. No further goals were scored and the match ended 2–1 with Burnley gaining promotion to the First Division.^[8]

Details

Burnley v Stockport County

29 May 1994	Burnley	2–1	Stockport County	Wembley Stadium, London
15:00 UTC	Eyres 29' Parkinson 66'	Report	Beaumont 2'	Attendance: 44,806 Referee: David Elleray

1 Marlon Beresford 2 Gary Parkinson 3 Les Thompson 4 Steve Davis 5 John Pender 6 Warren Joyce 7 Ted McMinn 8 John Deary 9 Adrian Heath 10 John Francis  12' 11 David Eyres Substitutes: 12 Andy Farrell  12' Manager: Jimmy Mullen

1 John Keeley 2 Lee Todd 3 Mick Wallace  14' 4 Sean Connelly 5 Mike Flynn 6 Bill Williams  59' 7 Jim Gannon  81' 8 Peter Ward 9 Kevin Francis 10 Chris Beaumont  60' 11 David Frain Substitutes: 12 Dave Miller  81' 13 Andy Preece  59' Manager: Danny Bergara

Post-match

Jimmy Mullen, the winning manager, said that it was "the greatest day of my career" and reflected on two promotions in the last three seasons, describing Burnley's success as "remarkable".^[8] The Stockport manager Danny Bergara said that he did not understand what had happened to his side: "It was bizarre ... I don't know what came over one or two of our players because we are not the kind of team to go berserk. But on one or two occasions we did."^[8]

Burnley ended their next season in 22nd place in the First Division, two places and eight points below safety, and were relegated back to the Second Division.^[5][10] Stockport's following season saw them finish in eleventh position in the Second Division.^[11]

References