Manchester City's next season saw them secure automatic promotion to the FA Premier League after ending their campaign as runners-up.

Manchester City finished five points behind Walsall (who were promoted in second place) and nineteen behind league winners Fulham.

Within 20 seconds, the home side had taken the lead: a misunderstanding between Manchester City goalkeeper Nicky Weaver and his team-mate Gerard Wiekens allowed Stuart Barlow to score from 15 yards (14 m).

City dominated the early stages and took the lead in the 27th minute through Shaun Goater, who put the ball past Roy Carroll in the Wigan goal with his chest from a Michael Brown cross.

[14] Gillingham manager Tony Pulis picked the same eleven players in his starting line-up as in the second leg of the semi-final.

[4] His opposite number, Joe Royle, made one change, selecting Andy Morrison in place of Tony Vaughan, who was instead named as one of the substitutes.

[20] After 26 minutes, City's Terry Cooke crossed the ball into the penalty area, where Horlock headed it towards goal, but it was saved by Gillingham's Bartram.

For Gillingham, Nicky Southall crossed the ball to Mark Saunders, but his shot went wide of the goal, and Asaba was tackled by City's Ian Bishop when in a potential scoring position.

Taylor added a second goal five minutes later: he found Asaba with a header and received a backheeled return pass before scoring with a shot.

[18] However, after Darren Carr had tackled Goater to deny him a goal-scoring opportunity, Horlock scored from the rebound for City to halve the deficit in the 90th minute.

In the fifth minute of injury time, Wiekens punted the ball forward, Horlock and Goater helped it on to Dickov who scored an equalising goal.

[21] Dickov saw his header gathered by Bartram and although Hodge's cross was blocked by Jeff Whitley's hand, no penalty was awarded.

[16][21] Gillingham manager Pulis was bemused by the amount of time added on by referee Halsey, stating that he "could not believe" the decision to add an additional five minutes.

[23] Manchester City's next season saw them secure automatic promotion to the FA Premier League after ending their campaign as runners-up.

[27] Manchester City's 1999 captain, Morrison, contended in 2018 that the club was at risk of going out of business within a year, if not for their match-winning promotion out of the Second Division.

[29] As a result of the subsequent success of the club, the Manchester Evening News described the match as "legendary in City's history" and Dickov's celebration of his goal as "iconic".

[31] Manchester City fans and other commentators regard the game as a crucial first step in the club's revival from the third tier of English football to yearly contenders for the Premier League championship.