 The final took place at the Millennium Stadium. | |||||||
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| Barnsley won 4–3 on penalties | |||||||
| Date | 27 May 2006 | ||||||
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| Venue | Millennium Stadium, Cardiff | ||||||
| Referee | Lee Mason (Lancashire) | ||||||
| Attendance | 55,419 | ||||||
The 2006 Football League One play-off final was an association football match which was played on 27 May 2006 between Barnsley and Swansea City at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, to determine the third and final team to gain promotion from Football League One to the Football League Championship. The top two teams of the 2005–06 Football League One season, Southend United and Colchester United, gained automatic promotion to the Championship, while the teams placed from third to sixth in the table took part in play-off semi-finals. The winners of these semi-finals competed for the final place for the 2006–07 season in the Championship. The losing semi-finalists were Brentford and Huddersfield Town. It was the last League One play-off final to be played at the Millennium Stadium, while Wembley Stadium was being redeveloped.
The referee for the match, which was played in front of a crowd of 55,419, was Lee Mason. In the 20th minute, Martin Devaney's cross was headed by Kevin Austin and Paul Reid volleyed the ball past Swansea goalkeeper Willy Guéret to make it 1–0. Nine minutes later, Swansea equalised when Rory Fallon scored with a bicycle kick. Andy Robinson then scored in the 41st minute after Barnsley goalkeeper Nick Colgan failed to hold his weak strike. On 62 minutes, Brian Howard was fouled on the edge of the Swansea penalty and Daniel Nardiello struck the resulting free kick into the Swansea goal to level the match at 2–2, where it remained at the end of regular time. No goals were scored in extra time, although both Lee Trundle and Adebayo Akinfenwa had chances for Swansea, and the game went to a penalty shootout. The first four penalties were scored, before Akinfenwa struck his spot-kick high over the crossbar. The next three penalties were scored before Colgan saved from Alan Tate, ensuring a 4–3 victory for Barnsley and promotion to the Championship.
Barnsley's next season, during which their manager Andy Ritchie was sacked, saw them finish in 20th position in the Championship, two places and eight points above the relegation zone. Swansea City finished their following season in seventh place in League One, one position below the play-offs.