Hull City 1 – 0 Middlesbrough

Oli McBurnie struck in injury-time to dramatically send Hull City into the Premier League as they beat Middlesbrough 1-0 at Wembley.

After a tense Championship play-off final, McBurnie capitalised on poor goalkeeping from Sol Brynn to score a 95th-minute winner.

It means the Tigers – who spent 2020/21 in League One – go back to the top flight for the first time in nine years, and in doing so they have also become the first team who finished sixth to win the play-offs since 2010.

Last season, they only stayed up on goal difference. This time they have been promoted.

For Boro, after all the emotion and fallout of the ‘Spygate’ saga that saw them reinstated to the play-offs just a few days ago, it will be back to the Championship next season.

Spygate saga overshadows pre-match build-up

It was a play-off final build-up like no other, completely dominated by the ‘Spygate’ saga.

Middlesbrough didn’t know for sure they’d be playing until less than 72 hours before kick-off – Southampton were expelled on Tuesday night, before having their appeal dismissed late on Wednesday night.

Despite all that, and their defeat on the pitch in the semi-finals, Boro arrived in full force, a defiant sea of red filling one half of the Wembley bowl opposite the glow of amber emanating from the other side.

Late McBurnie goal settles tense Wembley affair

It was a typically tense first half of a play-off final, with no side really going close until the stroke of half-time, when McBurnie latched onto a Ryan Giles cross but headed against the bar.

And that would be the last real chance until late in the day.

It felt like the game was meandering towards extra-time until substitute Yu Hirakawa’s cross into the box was only pushed by Boro goalkeeper Brynn as far as McBurnie, who calmly finished, before going wild in front of the Boro support.

Hull, who have had to deal with a transfer embargo and were outside of the play-offs heading into the final day of the regular campaign, will play in the Premier League next season.

The McBurnie final: ‘It was written for me to get it’

It wasn’t quite as stunning a strike as Hull’s last two play-off final winners – Dean Windass in 2008 and Mo Diame in 2016, but this will undoubtedly go down as the Oli McBurnie final.

McBurnie had joined Hull before the start of the season from Las Palmas, and had insisted from the start he didn’t leave Gran Canaria to return to the Championship for a ‘mediocre project’.

I don’t think even he would have foreseen this season ending the way it did for Hull.

“For the first time ever, I think I’m speechless!” he told Sky Sports.

“It’s been a long, hard season and that game today summed us up. We knew we weren’t going to come in and have all of the ball – I don’t think we’ve won a game this year when we’ve had more of the ball than the opposition!

“It was tough out there with the heat and Middlesbrough are a top, top team. We knew we were going to be right up against it, but we felt we’d have one chance and it was written for me to get it.

“I didn’t think it would be so late on, but what a feeling.”

Sky Sports’ Curtis Davies:

“It wasn’t a game of much quality and there seemed to be a lot of tired legs out there.” Davies – who was part of that Hull side who win in 2016 – told Sky Sports.

“We were waiting for extra-time and to see if there was going to be one bit of quality.

“I did think it was going to be a moment of quality in extra-time or a mistake. Unfortuntely for Sol Brynn, he makes a mistake, but Ollie McBurnie makes no mistake.

“We talked about him being a difference maker. He didn’t have much to do in the game and was almost marked out of it.

“But when his moment came he was there to go and do it. He sent Hull to the Premier League.”