Barnsley qualified for the play-offs and, after thrashing
Birmingham City 5–2 on aggregate (with a 2–1 defeat at Oakwell insufficient for Birmingham to best Barnsley over two legs after the Tykes' 4–0 win at
St Andrew's), reached the final at
Wembley to face
Ipswich Town. Barnsley took the lead through an own goal by Ipswich goalkeeper
Richard Wright, but goals from
Tony Mowbray,
Richard Naylor and
Marcus Stewart put Ipswich 3–1 up. A
Craig Hignett penalty with twelve minutes left gave Barnsley hope, until
Martijn Reuser's goal on the stroke of injury time. The 4–2 defeat condemned Barnsley to a second consecutive season in the First Division. Barnsley, who were the Football League's top scorers with 88 goals, could have achieved automatic promotion, but for their poor defence that conceded 67 goals – the worst of any in the top twelve of the First Division, and joint fourth-worst in the division. ==Final league table==