The 2008 Football League One play-off final was an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

match which was played on 25 May 2008 at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

, London, between Doncaster Rovers and

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

to determine the third and final team to gain

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

from

Football League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

to the

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

. The top two teams of the

2007–08 Football League One The Football League 2007–08 (named Coca-Cola Football League for sponsorship reasons), was the sixteenth season under its current league division format. It began in August 2007 and concluded in May 2008, with the promotion play-off finals. ...

season,

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ho ...

and Nottingham Forest, gained automatic promotion to the Championship, while those placed from third to sixth in the table took part in play-off semi-finals. The winners of these semi-finals competed for the final place for the 2008–09 season in the Championship. The losing semi-finalists were

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They have played their home games at Brunton Park s ...

and Southend United. The game was played in front of 75,132 spectators and was refereed by Andy D'Urso. After a goalless first half, Doncaster's James Hayter scored with a header from a Brian Stock corner. The match ended 1–0 to Doncaster, who were thus promoted to the Championship after four seasons in League One. Leeds finished the following season in fourth place in League One and qualified for the play-offs, where they lost in the semi-finals to

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...

. Doncaster's next season ended with them in fourteenth position in the Championship.

Route to the final

Doncaster Rovers finished the regular 2007–08 season in third place in

, the third tier of the

English football league system The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with five teams from Wales, one from Guernsey, one from Jersey and one from the Isl ...

, two positions ahead of

. Both therefore missed out on the two automatic places for

to the

and instead took part in the play-offs to determine the third promoted team. Doncaster Rovers finished two points behind Nottingham Forest (who were promoted in second place) and twelve behind league winners

. Leeds United ended the season four points behind Doncaster Rovers; before the start of the season, Leeds had been given a fifteen point deduction for "breaching rules on insolvency". Their manager, Dennis Wise, resigned in January 2008 and was replaced by

Gary McAllister Gary McAllister MBE (born 25 December 1964) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player. McAllister played primarily as a midfielder in a career spanning over nineteen years. He started his career at local side Motherwell ...

who confirmed that "the job brief is promotion." Leeds United faced

in their play-off semi-final with the first match of the

two-legged tie In sports (particularly association football), a two-legged tie is a contest between two teams which comprises two matches or "legs", with each team as the home team in one leg. The winning team is usually determined by aggregate score, the sum ...

being played at

Elland Road Elland Road is a football stadium in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, which has been the home of Premier League club Leeds United since the club's formation in 1919. The stadium is the 14th largest football stadium in England. The ...

in Leeds on 12 May 2008. The visitors took the lead on 32 minutes when a volley from Simon Hackney was deflected off

Danny Graham Daniel Graham Daniel Lawrence Graham (born November 16, 1978) is a former American football tight end in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the University of Colorado, and was recognized as a consensus All-Amer ...

into the Leeds net. Five minutes into the second half

Marc Bridge-Wilkinson Marc Bridge-Wilkinson (born 16 March 1979) is an English football coach and former player. A left-sided midfielder and also a winger, he was known for his goal-scoring ability. He started his career at Derby County in 1998, but instead made hi ...

, the Carlisle midfielder, sidefooted in

Evan Horwood Evan David Horwood (born 10 March 1986) is an English former professional footballer who played as a defender. He is currently a semi-professional defender for Northern Premier League Division One East side Consett. Coming through the youth a ...

's low

cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a s ...

to make it 2–0.

Keiren Westwood Keiren Westwood (born 23 October 1984) is a professional footballer who last played as a goalkeeper for Queens Park Rangers. Born in England, he played international football for the Republic of Ireland. Club career Manchester City Westwood was ...

, the Carlisle goalkeeper, made a number of saves in a performance which the BBC's Mandeep Sanghera called "heroic". However, he was beaten five minutes into stoppage time when Jermaine Beckford scored from a

free kick A free kick is an action used in several codes of football to restart play with the kicking of a ball into the field of play. Association football In association football, the free kick is a method of restarting the game following an offe ...

to make the final score 2–1. The second leg of the play-off semi-final took place three days later at

Brunton Park Brunton Park is a football stadium and the home of Carlisle United. It is situated in the city of Carlisle and has a certified capacity of 17,949. The ground opened in 1909. Brunton Park's grandstand burned down in 1953 and the stadium floode ...

in Carlisle. Jonny Howson opened the scoring on 10 minutes for the away side to level the

aggregate score There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the ''single elimination'', the ''best-of-'' series, the ''total points series'' more commonly kn ...

at 2–2. Carlisle had a number of chances in the second half but could not convert any, and in the 90th minute, Howson scored his and Leeds' second from : the game ended 2–0 to Leeds who progressed to the Wembley play-off final with a 3–2 aggregate victory. In the other play-off semi-final, Doncaster Rovers faced Southend United and the first leg took place at Roots Hall in Southend-on-Sea on 9 May 2008. The home side dominated the first half but after the break, Doncaster's Jason Price missed several chances. Paul Heffernan was sent off for headbutting Southend's Peter Clarke after they tangled in a tackle with three minutes to go and the match finished goalless. The second leg was held a week later at the Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster. The visitors hit the crossbar in the opening minutes through a James Walker strike but Doncaster took the lead on 11 minutes with a

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) * Penal ...

from Brian Stock. Adam Barrett scored an

own goal An own goal, also called a self goal, is where a player performs actions that result in them or their team scoring a goal on themselves, often resulting in a point for the opposing team, such as when a football player kicks a ball into their own ...

ten minutes later before James Coppinger struck a third to see the home side leading 3–0 at half-time. Coppinger completed his

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three w ...

with two more goals after the interval and with a consolation goal from Southend's

Nicky Bailey Nicky Francis Bailey (born 10 June 1984) is an English professional footballer who plays for Cray Wanderers as a midfielder. He has played for the England C national team. Club career Early career and Barnet Bailey, born in Putney, London, beg ...

made it 5–1 to Doncaster at the final whistle.

Match

Background

Doncaster had played in the third tier of English football since gaining promotion from the Third Division as champions in the 2003–04 season. They had not featured in a league play-off final, although they won the 2003 Football Conference play-off final to secure their place back in the Football League. Doncaster had also never played a competitive match at

. Leeds were relegated to League One the previous season, having also been deducted ten points for entering administration. The club had featured in two play-off finals prior to 2008: they lost the

1987 Football League Second Division play-off final The 1987 Football League Second Division play-off Final was an association football match contested between Leeds United and Charlton Athletic over two legs on 23 May 1987 and 25 May 1987 to determine which club would play the next ...

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

and were defeated by

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

in the 2006 Football League Championship play-off final. The last visit Leeds had paid to the national stadium was for the 1996 Football League Cup Final which they lost 3–0 against

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park, ...

. During the regular season, both games between the sides resulted in away wins: Doncaster won 1–0 at Elland Road in January 2008 while Leeds secured a 1–0 victory at the Keepmoat Stadium the following April. Doncaster's top scorer going into the play-offs was Hayter with nine goals (seven in the league and two in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...

). Beckford was leading scorer for Leeds with twenty goals, followed by

Trésor Kandol Trésor Osmar Kandol (born 30 August 1981) is a Congolese international footballer who plays as a striker for Crawley Wanderers FC. He previously played for Isthmian League Premier Division side Hampton & Richmond Borough, as well as for Ba ...

with eleven. The

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other tit ...

for the match was Andy D'Urso representing the

Essex County Football Association The Essex County Football Association, also simply known as the ''Essex FA'', is the governing body of football in the county of Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridge ...

. Both teams started the final with line-ups unchanged from their respective semi-final second leg matches. The BBC reported that Leeds had sold their full ticket allocation of 36,000 while Doncaster had sold 24,000. According to author Daniel Chapman, Leeds fans queued overnight for the chance to buy tickets, and that "by dawn there were 7,000 in a tired, hungry and angry scrum".Chapman, p. 379 Doncaster played in red-and-white hooped shirts while Leeds wore white

kit Kit may refer to: Places *Kitt, Indiana, US, formerly Kit * Kit, Iran, a village in Mazandaran Province * Kit Hill, Cornwall, England People * Kit (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Kit (surname) Animals * Young animal ...

Summary

The match kicked off around 3p.m. on 25 May 2008 in front of 75,132 spectators. Within a minute, the Leeds defender

Bradley Johnson Bradley Paul Johnson (born 28 April 1987) is an English professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for EFL League One club Milton Keynes Dons. Early life Born in Hackney, Greater London, Johnson was a keen motorcyclist as a chi ...

's shot cleared the Doncaster crossbar. On six minutes, Price's shot from was blocked by Leeds before

Richie Wellens Richard Paul Wellens (born 26 March 1980) is an English professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He is currently head coach of EFL League Two club Leyton Orient. Wellens began his career at Manchester United be ...

struck the ball into the side netting.

Casper Ankergren Casper Ankergren (; born 9 November 1979) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is now the Head of Goalkeeping at Danish Superliga side Brøndby IF. He played three matches for the Denmark national under-21 ...

then made a save at Coppinger's feet before denying Hayter after Doncaster had beaten the

offside trap Offside is one of the laws in association football, codified in Law 11 of the Laws of the Game. The law states that a player is in an offside position if any of their body parts, except the hands and arms, are in the opponents' half of the p ...

. On 15 minutes,

Matt Mills Matthew Claude Mills (born 14 July 1986) is an English retired professional footballer who played as a defender. He spent most of his career in the English EFL Championship, in which he played for Leicester City, Reading, Bolton, Nottingham F ...

became the first player of the afternoon to be shown a yellow card for a foul on Beckford. In the 17th minute, Beckford's strike was saved in the Doncaster goal by Neil Sullivan. Ten minutes later, David Prutton was booked for a late tackle. Leeds increased the pressure and in the 31st minute Beckford's weak shot was saved by Sullivan. Five minutes before half time, Hayter's strike flew over the Leeds crossbar before Howson's curling shot passed narrowly outside the Doncaster post. The half was brought to a close with the score at 0–0. Neither side made any changes to their personnel during the half-time interval, and Doncaster won an early free kick which Coppinger struck into the

defensive wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...

. In the 48th minute, Hayter put Doncaster ahead: Stock played in an outswinging corner which Hayter scored with a diving header to make it 1–0. Three minutes later, Beckford's shot was saved by Sullivan low to his right. On 60 minutes, Howson's strike from was off-target. Twelve minutes later, Leeds made the first

substitution Substitution may refer to: Arts and media *Chord substitution, in music, swapping one chord for a related one within a chord progression *Substitution (poetry), a variation in poetic scansion * "Substitution" (song), a 2009 song by Silversun Pic ...

of the game with Prutton being replaced by Kandol. Coppinger was then stopped by

Jonathan Douglas Jonathan Michael Douglas (born 22 November 1981) is an Irish professional footballer who last played for Ipswich Town and has also represented the Republic of Ireland at international level. Club career Blackburn Rovers Born in Monaghan, Dougl ...

before

Mark McCammon Mark Jason McCammon (born 7 August 1978) is a former professional footballer who played as a striker. Born in England, he represented the Barbados national national team at international level. After starting his career with Cambridge United ...

came on for Wellens. With around twelve minutes remaining,

Dougie Freedman Douglas Alan Freedman (born 25 May 1974) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He is the current sporting director of Crystal Palace. Freedman played as a striker, primarily for Crystal Palace and also had spells as a ...

's shot went wide and he was soon after replaced by Andrew Hughes. Two minutes later, Price was replaced by Adam Lockwood before Sullivan was booked for time-wasting. Doncaster then made their final substitution of the match with Coppinger being replaced by Lewis Guy. Douglas then saw his half-volley fly just wide of the Doncaster goal and after four minutes of stoppage time, the final whistle was blown.

Details

Post-match

Hayter said: "It is an unbelievable feeling to score the winner. I have been dreaming about it all week." The Doncaster

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activitie ...

Sean O'Driscoll Sean Michael O'Driscoll (born 1 July 1957) is a former professional footballer and manager. He has previously managed AFC Bournemouth, Doncaster Rovers, Crawley Town, Nottingham Forest, Bristol City and Walsall. He was known by the nickname "No ...

suggested that he "could murder a cup of tea" while his opposite number McAllister suggested his team "huffed and puffed but our quality wasn't quite there today. We lost a poor goal." The Leeds goalkeeper Ankergren reflected "maybe in a few days we'll realise the achievement... but right now we're standing here with nothing." Leeds finished the following season in fourth place in League One and qualified for the play-offs, where they lost in the semi-finals to

. Doncaster's next season ended with them in fourteenth position in the Championship.

References

Sources

* {{Leeds United A.F.C. matches EFL League One play-off finals Play-off Final 2009 Play-off Final 2009 2 Play-off Final Football League One Play-off Final Football League One Play-off Final