Burnley booked a place in the Premier League as a Wade Elliott goal earned a 1-0 win over Sheff Utd in the Championship play-off final.
Wonder goal ends 33 years of waiting for return to the big time
Burnley booked a place in the Premier League as a stunning strike from Wade Elliott earned a 1-0 victory over Sheffield United in the Championship play-off final at Wembley.
United entered the game as favourites, but Elliott's wonder goal in the first half ensured the Clarets ended a marathon season of more than 60 games by earning a return to top-flight football for the first time in 33 years.
The midfielder netted the only goal of the game in the 13th minute as he superbly curled past Paddy Kenny from 25 yards to ensure Owen Coyle's side, who reached the semi-finals of the Carling Cup and last 16 of the FA Cup, grabbed promotion.
United believed they should have had the chance to respond in the first 45 minutes when Brian Howard appeared to be felled by Graham Alexander but referee Mike Dean, whose appointment was criticised by Blades boss Kevin Blackwell, was not interested.
Burnley almost extended their lead in the second half but United were twice grateful to last-ditch blocks from Nick Montgomery and Kyle Walker as Coyle's men played on the counter-attack.
Blackwell's hopes of grabbing an equaliser were then extinguished as substitute Jamie Ward was sent off for two bookings, both for handball, after only 11 minutes on the field.
The Clarets, among the founder members of the Football League, are back in the top flight for the first time since 1976.
For United, another season in the Championship beckons, two years after they were relegated amid the controversy of the Carlos Tevez affair.
Epic season
The Blades maintain they, and not a Tevez-inspired West Ham, should have stayed up in 2007.
Victory sees Burnley become the smallest town to boast a Premier League team - and almost half of their 73,000 inhabitants had travelled down to the capital to watch them triumph.
The Clarets were deserved winners in their 61st game of an arduous season, having knocked out top-flight opposition including Chelsea, Arsenal and Fulham during their two epic cup runs.
But they were on the back foot in the opening stages with United, who held hopes of automatic promotion until the final day of the season, testing Brian Jensen with awkward shots from Kyle Naughton and Howard.
But against the run of play, Burnley took the lead thanks to a superb piece of play from Elliott.
The midfielder burst forward, skipping past a couple of Blades tackles, before playing in Chris McCann.
Matt Kilgallon got a challenge in but the ball fell perfectly for Elliott to curl a stunning first-time effort past Paddy Kenny from range.
United were claiming a penalty two minutes later when Howard tumbled in the area under a clumsy challenge from Alexander, but referee Dean did not respond.
McCann's afternoon ended prematurely when he limped off to be replaced by Joey Gudjonsson, but the swap did not knock the Clarets out of their stride and Martin Paterson curled an angled drive inches wide of Kenny's right-hand post.
Dramatic
As the clock ticked into first-half stoppage time Steven Thompson headed Elliot's cross narrowly wide.
Burnley almost doubled their lead moments after the restart when Robbie Blake's corner was flicked on by Thompson and Michael Duff, arriving at the far post, just failed to turn the ball home.
And in the 55th minute they were denied a second by a dramatic goal-line clearance from Montgomery.
Thompson's header back across the six-yard box was turned goalwards by Gudjonsson, and Montgomery knew little about it as the ball hit the heel of his standing foot, a yard from the line, and bounced wide.
United had another huge let-off 10 minutes later when Thompson sprang the offside trap again and this time squared the ball across to Blake, only for young defender Walker to make a goal-saving challenge.
Burnley's missed chances could have come back to haunt them in the 68th minute when Christian Kalvenes knocked Naughton off the ball in the box but Dean again waved away the appeals.
Paterson was next to try his luck, cutting in from the right and surging into the box only for Walker to block his shot.
And the Blades' task became tougher still in the 78th minute when striker Jamie Ward, who had been booked four minutes earlier, was shown a second yellow card by Dean for handball.
United looked a beaten side as Burnley held on, and the claret and blue half of Wembley erupted on Dean's final whistle, bringing the curtain down on a memorable campaign.
| Burnley |
Team Statistics |
Sheffield United |
| 1 |
Goals |
0 |
| 1 |
1st Half Goals |
0 |
| 3 |
Shots on Target |
3 |
| 6 |
Shots off Target |
3 |
| 4 |
Blocked Shots |
7 |
| 10 |
Corners |
3 |
| 12 |
Fouls |
14 |
| 1 |
Offsides |
1 |
| 2 |
Yellow Cards |
1 |
| 0 |
Red Cards |
1 |
| 59.8 |
Passing Success |
67.1 |
| 29 |
Tackles |
25 |
| 82.8 |
Tackles Success |
80 |
| 46.6 |
Possession |
53.4 |
| 51.8 |
Territorial Advantage |
48.2 |
|
