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Leicester City 2, Crystal Palace 1 (aet), Wembley Stadium, 27th May 1996
At the end of my first season as a Leicester City fan, a miraculous run of results under our new manager, Martin O'Neill saw Leicester sneak into the playoffs, a 0-0 draw with Stoke and a 1-0 win in the second leg saw us facing Crystal Palace in the final and my first trip to the Twin Towers. Andy Roberts put Crystal Palace ahead after 13 minutes, the ball taking an unlucky bobble over Kevin Poole's arm. In the 77th minute, Leicester won a penalty, Garry Parker scoring it, having been the hero at Stoke in the semi final. In extra time, the two sides were knackered, battling it out but unable to get ahead. A Penalty shoot out seemed certain. Cometh the hour, cometh the man, the most unlikely Wembley hero of all time... 119th minute, reserve goalkeeper Zeljko Kalac comes on for Poole. We'd seen Kalac in action twice this season, once he nearly cost us a 3-0 win at West Brom which we won 3-2, and a disasterous League Cup match against Bolton. He's terrible, anyone that saw Australia v Croatia at last year's World Cup knows that. However, it seemed to somehow unnerve the Crystal Palace defence, who let Garry Parker's free kick find an exhausted Steve Claridge, who managed to lift his leg up to make shin contact with the ball, to put it past Nigel Martyn, who was rooted to the spot. Leicester win 2-1 and are on their way to the Premiership, and arguably the greatest spell in club history.
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