Glenn Hoddle, Swindon's player-manager, opened the scoring late in the first half and early second-half goals from Craig Maskell and Shaun Taylor made it 3–0 after 53 minutes.

With six minutes of the match remaining, the referee David Elleray awarded Swindon a penalty which was converted by Paul Bodin, securing a 4–3 victory.

Leicester ended their next season in fourth place in the First Division and secured promotion to the Premiership with a 2–1 win over Derby County in the play-off final.

Swindon took the lead within two minutes of the kick-off when a cross from Nicky Summerbee was headed past Eric Nixon in the Tranmere goal by his own defender Steve Vickers.

The lead was doubled a minute later when Nixon mishandled a shot from Ross MacLaren, allowing Dave Mitchell to score.

The match was hosted at Nottingham Forest's home stadium, the City Ground, as Leicester's Filbert Street was undergoing redevelopment.

The game, described by Paul Weaver in The Guardian as "dreadful", was "partially redeemed by a stunning goal" from Julian Joachim, a second-half substitute for Leicester.

Steve Thompson then put Leicester ahead in the 69th minute with a shot from the edge of the penalty area beating the Portsmouth goalkeeper Alan Knight.

[7][8] Swindon had beaten Gillingham 2–0 in a replay after the 1987 Football League Third Division play-off final, which was played over two legs, had ended 2–2 on aggregate.

[12] Leicester's top scorer during the regular season was Steve Walsh with fifteen goals in all competitions, followed by Joachim and David Lowe on twelve.

[14] In the matches played between both sides during the regular season, Leicester had won their home game 4–2 in December 1992, while the return fixture at the County Ground the following April ended in a 1–1 draw.

[16] Prior to the match, there had been considerable speculation over the future of Swindon's player-manager Hoddle who had been linked with Premiership clubs Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur.

[2] He was able to select a full-strength squad as he had been able to persuade the Australia national soccer team to release Mitchell from the 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification – OFC second round fixture against New Zealand.

Summerbee was shown a yellow card for a foul as Leicester sought to increase pressure on Swindon, and although Digby failed to hold onto a Joachim cross, he successfully parried it away.

[12] He went on to suggest that Swindon's 73-year journey to the top flight of English football was "completed with a flourish worthy of one of the country's most pleasing teams".

[12] Clive Baskerville wrote in the Reading Evening Post that the spectators were "entertained by a standard of football rarely seen [that] season".

[30] Winning goal-scorer Bodin was forced to miss the celebration as he joined up with the Wales national football team who were playing a World Cup qualifier against the Faroe Islands.

[32] Club chairman Ray Hardman confirmed that although a two-hour board meeting had taken place prior to the parade, Hoddle's position had not been discussed.

[33] Hoddle was unrepentant, and offered no apology for his departure: "It was a very sad day when I left Swindon and it was a very emotional decision to make ... you have to do hard things that are right for yourself and [Chelsea manager] is the right job for me ...

[34] In his first season with the London club, he led Chelsea to 14th position in the league and an appearance at Wembley in the 1994 FA Cup Final where they lost 4–0 to Manchester United.

They defeated Tranmere Rovers in the semi-final before securing promotion to the Premiership with a 2–1 win over Derby County, their East Midlands rivals, in the play-off final.