The 90 seconds that turned a play-off semi-final upside down

The context made the sequence almost unbearable to watch. Leicester City had won the first leg 1-0 at the King Power Stadium on 9 May 2013, David Nugent scoring in the 82nd minute. When Nugent scored again at Vicarage Road in the 19th minute of the second leg, Leicester held a 2-0 aggregate lead. Matej Vydra pulled one back in the 15th minute and added a second in the 65th, but the tie was level at 2-2 on aggregate as the clock moved deep into stoppage time. One goal for Leicester meant Wembley.

Then Anthony Knockaert went down in the Watford area. The referee awarded a penalty. The decision was disputed at the time and contemporaneous reports described the award as debatable — it has remained contested ever since.

Knockaert took the kick himself. Manuel Almunia saved it. Knockaert reached the rebound and Almunia saved that too.

What followed happened fast. Watford cleared. Ikechi Anya drove forward and fed Fernando Forestieri. Forestieri's cross reached the far post, where Jonathan Hogg headed the ball back across goal. Troy Deeney met it and scored past Kasper Schmeichel. The goal came in the seventh minute of added time. Watford won the second leg 3-1 and the tie 3-2 on aggregate. Gianfranco Zola's side were going to Wembley.

The reason the clip still circulates — Watford's own club channel continues to publish it — is structural. A penalty award, two saves, a clearance, a counter-attack, a cross, a headed layoff and a finish all occur inside a single continuous phase. The two clubs' positions were completely inverted between the moment Knockaert placed the ball on the spot and the moment Deeney turned it in at the other end.

What the clip does not show is what came next. Watford faced Crystal Palace in the play-off final at Wembley on 27 May 2013. Kevin Phillips scored from a penalty in the first minute of added time at the end of the first period of extra time — 90 seconds of Vicarage Road had sent Watford there, and one kick at Wembley ended it. Watford lost 1-0 after extra time and were not promoted at the end of the 2012-13 season.

The Deeney goal is remembered. The final is the reason it is remembered the way it is — not as a promotion moment, but as the sharpest possible illustration of how quickly a football match can change everything, and then change it again.