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 Britannia Stadium venue of the 2003 Football Conference play-off final | |||||||
| Event | 2002–03 Football Conference | ||||||
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| After extra time | |||||||
| Date | 10 May 2003 | ||||||
| Venue | Britannia Stadium,Stoke-on-Trent | ||||||
| Referee | Andre Marriner (Birmingham) | ||||||
| Attendance | 13,092 | ||||||
2004 → | |||||||
The2003 Football Conference play-off final took place on 10 May 2003 and was contested betweenDagenham & Redbridge andDoncaster Rovers. It was held at theBritannia Stadium,Stoke-on-Trent and was the inaugural final of theFootball Conference playoffs which were introduced to accommodate a second promotion place to theFootball League.
Doncaster had much of the play early on in the match withTony Roberts in the Daggers goal making a number of good saves, notably fromPaul Barnes. Doncaster turned up the pressure and should have taken the lead throughSteve Foster, whose header was cleared off the line byJohn McGrath. However they took a deserved lead whenTim Ryan's cross was headed into the net byPaul Green.
Ten minutes into the second half Doncaster were two goals in front thanks toDave Morley's header, which a Dagenham defender got an inadvertent hand to, with the ball rebounding in off the post. Dagenham battled on and got a goal back throughMark Stein, who netted after a knock down from target man Steve West. They then levelled the scores whenTarkan Mustafa scored arguably the goal of the game. He received a good ball fromPaul Terry on the right, ran at the Rovers defence and shot pastAndy Warrington into the far corner of the net.
Extra time was needed and, with legs tiring, it was Doncaster who got the golden goal.Paul Barnes broke away on the left and crossed forFrancis Tierney, who sidefooted home to send his team back into the Football League. It is the only time in UK football that promotion has been decided by the controversialgolden goal method, officially known as "Promotion Goal" in this match. The pitch was subsequently invaded by Doncaster Rovers fans, including one wearing an oversized jester's hat who managed to circle the ground before being caught by police.
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Match rules:
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