The 2000 Football League Trophy Final (known as the Auto Windscreens Shield for sponsorship reasons) was the 17th final of the domestic football cup competition for teams from the Second and Third Division of the Football League. The match was played at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

on 16 April 2000, and was the last Football League Trophy final to be played there before the stadium closed for redevelopment. The match was contested by

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

and Stoke City. The match was won by Stoke City, with

Graham Kavanagh Graham Anthony Kavanagh (born 2 December 1973) is an Irish football manager and former professional player. Kavanagh had a 19-year-long career and played for Middlesbrough, Stoke City, Cardiff City, Wigan Athletic, Sunderland, Sheffield Wednes ...

and Peter Thorne scoring in the 2–1 victory.

Background

The 1999–2000 season saw both

and Stoke City involved in the race for promotion to the First Division. Stoke had been in the top six for most of the campaign whilst Bristol battled with city rivals

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been ...

to gain a play-off spot. The two sides had played each other twice before the final. Firstly on 14 November 1999 at Stoke's

Britannia Stadium The Bet365 Stadium (stylised as ''bet365 Stadium'') is an all-seater football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England and the home of EFL Championship club Stoke City. The stadium was previously called the Britannia Stadium but was ...

the score ending 1–1 with goals from Nicky Mohan and

Brian Tinnion Brian Tinnion (born 23 February 1968) is an English former football player and manager. He made over 450 appearances for Bristol City, including a spell as player-manager where he is currently in the role of Academy Director. He started as a l ...

. The second match at Ashton Gate also ended in a draw this time 2–2 with goals from

Kyle Lightbourne Kyle Lavince Lightbourne (born 29 September 1968) is a Bermudian professional association football, footballer who played as a forward (association football), forward for Scarborough F.C., Scarborough, Walsall F.C., Walsall, Coventry City F.C., ...

and a brace from Tony Thorpe.

Route to the final

Both sides had a fairly easy route to the final, Bristol City were handed a first round bye whilst Stoke over came Darlington 3–2 thanks to a Kyle Lightbourne golden goal. Bristol City beat

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league sy ...

3–1 in the second round and Stoke overcame

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic be ...

again via a golden goal. In the quarters Bristol City eased past Bournemouth on penalties as Stoke beat Blackpool 2–1. The semi-finals saw Bristol City cruise past

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

4–0 whilst Stoke needed a late goal from James O'Connor to progress. In the area finals Bristol City beat

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

5–1 over two legs and Stoke won equality as easily beating

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

4–1.

Match review

Over 75,000 fans packed into

to see Bristol City take on Stoke City in the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

final for which Stoke fans dedicated to

Stanley Matthews Sir Stanley Matthews, CBE (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English footballer who played as an outside right. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the British game, he is the only player to have been knighted while sti ...

who had died in February 2000. Stoke made the bright start of the two sides enjoying a decent amount of possession and took the lead through

after 32 minutes after his shot beat the Robins 'keeper Billy Mercer at his near post. Leading 1–0 Stoke dropped deeper in the second half as they looked to cancel out the threat from the dangerous Scott Murray and Tony Thorpe. It looked to be working but with 15 minutes left Paul Holland headed in a corner to make the scores 1–1. However it was Stoke who had the final say, a counterattack by Stoke was halted when

Bjarni Guðjónsson Bjarni Eggerts Guðjónsson (born 26 February 1979) is an Icelandic former professional footballer, who was last manager of KR. He has played in Belgium, England and Germany and has two brothers who have also played professional football, Þ� ...

was fouled by Louis Carey to conceded a free-kick. Whilst Bristol complied about the awarding of the free-kick, Guðjónsson played a quick pass to Kavanagh who crossed in to Peter Thorne to earn Stoke their third win at Wembley.

Match details

References

External links

{{Stoke City F.C. matches EFL Trophy Finals Football League Trophy Final 2000 Football League Trophy Final 2000 Trophy