1993 Football League Second Division play-off Final


The 1993 Football League Second Division play-off Final was a football match played on 30 May 1993 at Wembley Stadium, London, between Port Vale and West Bromwich Albion to determine the third and final team to gain promotion from the Second Division to the First Division. The top two teams of the 1992–93 Football League Second Division season gained automatic promotion to the First Division, while the teams placed from third to sixth place in the table partook in play-off semi-finals; the winners of these semi-finals competed for the final place for the 1993–94 season in the First Division.
West Brom had no experience of the play-offs before 1993, while Vale had won promotion through the third tier play-offs after winning the 1989 play-off final. In the semi-finals, Vale defeated Stockport County and West Brom beat Swansea City. A Wembley Stadium crowd of more than 53,000 people watched the final, which was refereed by Roger Milford. The match finished with a comprehensive 3–0 victory for West Brom, all three goals coming in the second half. The pivotal point of the match was when Vale defender Peter Swan was sent off for bringing down Bob Taylor, who had been through on goal. Andy Hunt, Nicky Reid and Kevin Donovan went on to score for Albion, to take their team into the second tier of the Football League.
West Brom ended the following season in 21st place in the First Division, above the relegation zone on goals difference. Vale's next season saw them secure promotion in second place in the Second Division, three points above the play-offs and one point behind the league champions.

Route to the final

had finished the regular 1992–93 season in third place in the Third Division, the third tier of the English football league system, one place ahead of West Bromwich Albion. Both therefore missed out on the two automatic promotion places to the First Division and instead took part in the play-offs to determine the third promoted team. Vale had finished one point behind Bolton Wanderers and four points behind league winners and Potteries derby rivals Stoke City; they had drawn both their games with Bolton and lost both their games with Stoke. West Brom finished four points behind Vale.
Vale's opponents for the play-off semi-final were Stockport County and the first leg was played at Edgeley Park in Stockport. Jim Gannon converted a fifth-minute penalty, only for Dean Glover to level the scores at 1–1 on 24 minutes, with the game ending in a draw. The return leg was held at Vale Park three days later and Martin Foyle's 84th-minute strike went unanswered to give Vale a 2–1 aggregate victory. On 22 May, Vale would also beat Stockport 2–1 in the 1993 Football League Trophy final at Wembley Stadium. Paul Kerr put the Vale ahead, before Bernie Slaven made it two before half-time. Giant striker Kevin Francis pulled one back for Stockport but Vale held on for another 2–1 victory.
West Bromwich Albion faced Swansea City in their semi-final play-off, and the first leg was played at Vetch Field, Swansea. West Brom lost the match 2–1 after Andy McFarlane and Martin Hayes scored twice in the 20 minutes after the second half kick-off, only for McFarlane to give the visitors a lifeline with an own goal on 72 minutes. The second leg was played three days later at The Hawthorns, West Brom's home ground. Andy Hunt and Ian Hamilton put the home side in control of the tie with goals on 10 and 20 minutes, and no further goals ensured West Bromwich Albion of a 3–2 aggregate victory.

Match

Background

This was West Bromwich Albion's first attempt to be promoted via the play-offs. Port Vale had won promotion through the third tier play-offs after winning the 1989 play-off final. West Brom had scored 88 goals in the 1992–93 season, more than any other team in the Second Division; 30 of these goals came from the division's top scorer Bob Taylor, who had double the tally of namesake Ian Taylor, who was Vale's top marksman with 15 league goals. West Brom had dropped into the third tier of the English Football League for the first time in their history in 1991 and recorded their lowest ever finish of seventh in the third tier in the 1991–92 season. Port Vale had been relegated out of the second tier in 1992 and were looking for an immediate return. In the two league matches played between the clubs during the regular season, Port Vale won both matches: 1–0 away in October 1992 and 2–1 at home the following February. The referee for the match was Roger Milford, representing the Gloucestershire County Football Association, who was described as "the players' friend" as he was yet to send a player off in the 1992–93 season. Port Vale team coach driver David Durber sat on the squad bench for the match as Rudge had ran out of his allocated tickets. Port Vale took 11,000 supporters to Wembley, who were heavily outnumbered by the 42,300 Baggies.

Summary

The first half finished goalless, with Vale showing patience and possession. West Bromwich Albion were starting to apply pressure early in the second half and Kevin Donovan came close to opening the scoring with a scissors kick. Vale also had a 53rd-minute cross-cum-shot by Ian Taylor tipped over the bar by Tony Lange. Paul Musselwhite used his acrobatic skills to deny Donovan and Paul Raven after Bob Taylor exploited Vale defender Peter Swan's lack of pace. Swan fouled Taylor on 60 minutes and his subsequent dismissal proved to be the turning point in the match; it also meant that he went down in history as only the third Englishman to be sent off at Wembley, after Kevin Keegan and Lee Dixon. Andy Hunt scored the game's opening goal on 66 minutes, and would make his loan spell from Newcastle United into a permanent transfer for a fee of £100,000 later in the week. Hunt had capitalized with a header from a goalmouth scramble when Gary Strodder's header was blocked by a combination of Musselwhite and the crossbar, and Taylor's cross was knocked on to Hunt by Nicky Reid. Reid scored his first goal for Albion with an 18-yard strike on 82 minutes after being assisted by Donovan, who countered a Vale attack by running past the halfway line. Reid repaid Donovan by setting him up for the "Baggies" final goal from six yards on 90 minutes, with the game ending 3–0 to West Brom.

Details

Post-match

West Brom manager Osvaldo Ardiles had secured his fourth success at Wembley as a player and manager, and said that: "This is the best place in the world to win, but when you lose it looks empty and dirty. Here, the winner takes all." The victory was estimated to win his club £2 million from season-ticket sales and TV rights. Port Vale manager John Rudge said that: "You can't ask much more of a team than to get 89 points, which would have won us the Championship last year. It's a cruel game." Speaking in 2018, Taylor described the feeling of "massive relief" and how "the parties ensued afterwards... my memory’s a bit fuzzy, but we stopped off halfway through at some hotel, had a few drinks there, and then carried on back. It went on into the daylight hours."
Albion spent nine more seasons outside the top division but avoided a return to the third tier. Instead, after barely surviving the next season, they steadily improved until achieving promotion to the Premier League by finishing second in the 2001–02 season. Vale won promotion as runners-up in the following season, and spent the next six seasons in the second tier. But after a high of eighth in 1996–97 they returned to the third tier for the new millennium after relegation at the end of the 1999–2000 season.
Ardiles left Albion to return to manage Tottenham Hotspur in 1993, before heading abroad in 1995; he ended up coaching in places as varied as Croatia, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Argentina. Rudge was controversially sacked in 1999 and decided sixteen years as a manager was enough, instead choosing to become Director of Football at local rivals Stoke City. Bob Taylor had continued success at West Brom before spending 1998 to 2000 with Bolton Wanderers, only to return to The Hawthorns to help the club to reach the Premier League in 2002. Andy Hunt stayed with West Brom until 1998 when he signed for Charlton Athletic, retiring in April 2000 at age 30 due to illness; he later emigrated to Belize. Nicky Reid left the club in 1997 to become player-manager of Sligo Rovers, but things did not go well for him and he returned to England to become a physiotherapist at various clubs. Kevin Donovan also left in 1997 and moved to Grimsby Town, also scoring for them in the 1998 Second Division play-off final; he continued to maintain links to grimsby Town after retiring. Red carded Peter Swan left Vale in 1994 to move to Plymouth Argyle for a fee of £300,000, and turned out for numerous other clubs before retiring in 2000.