Salis’ Sunderland secure Premier League return

Teenager Tom Watson scored a 95th-minute winner to send Sunderland up to the Premier League and deny Sheffield United in the Championship play-off final at Wembley Stadium.

The 19-year-old, who is joining Brighton and Hove Albion next season, curled a low effort past Michael Cooper to secure the Black Cats’ return to the top flight for the first time in eight years.

It was an incredible end to a match in which they had been second best for large parts.

Tyrese Campbell had given the Blades a deserved first-half lead and Harrison Burrows would have had a second but for a video assistant referee (VAR) call for offside.

Somehow the Wearside club hung in there and equalised through Eliezer Mayenda’s fine goal on 76 minutes.

Then with United down to 10 men temporarily having used all five substitutes after defender Anel Ahmedhodzic went off with a head injury, Watson took advantage of the extra space in the most dramatic way possible.

Being promoted caps a gloriously unexpected rise from where Sunderland were 12 months ago.

From finishing 16th to appointing an unknown French head coach in Regis Le Bris, predicting promotion to the Premier League would have been unthinkable.

But from winning all four league games in August, they have never looked back and were never lower than fourth at any point.

Automatic promotion hopes may have fallen away in the spring as their form dipped with a play-off spot all but guaranteed, but they wrestled back momentum to get past Coventry City in the semi-finals, even if it took a last-gasp Dan Ballard goal in extra time to do it.

And they have done it with a young, inexperienced team. Of the starting XI here at Wembley, Luke O’Nien was the only player over 25, with Jobe Bellingham and Chris Rigg still in their teens.

While there was not a single Premier League appearance amongst them compared to 294 in the Blades side.

But Le Bris and his players have made a mockery of those factors to put the Wearside club back among the elite of English football.

As Sunderland celebrated, Sheffield United could only one reflect on taking one blow too many in a season full of adversity.

They were relegated from the Premier League last season, battered and bruised by a campaign in which they finished bottom with only three wins and more than 100 goals conceded.

It was left to manager Chris Wilder to pick them up by the boot straps and he had done exactly that, reaching 90 points despite starting with a deduction of two points for financial irregularities during their previous promotion season two years ago.

Then in October they were hit by the tragic death of popular former player George Baldock, who had only left the club last summer to move to Greek side Panathinaikos.

Paying tribute to his memory has been a driving force for the Blades throughout the season.

They were neck and neck with Leeds United and Burnley for much of the season, but a nightmare eight days in April put paid to their automatic hopes with losses to Oxford United, Millwall and Plymouth Argyle.

They shrugged off that disappointment with a ruthless display over two legs to hammer Bristol City in the semi-finals and gave themselves a chance to end their play-off and Wembley hoodoo.

But it is now 10 play-off failures and still no wins at the national stadium since 1925 – mental baggage that proved too difficult to overcome.

It had all looked so different early on as Anthony Patterson produced an outstanding save to keep out Kieffer Moore’s header from a pinpoint cross from Gustavo Hamer.

It came at great cost to Black Cats captain and defender Luke O’Nien, the veteran of over 300 games for the club, who had to be helped from the field with a dislocated shoulder after colliding with Moore.

The Blades were the better team, though, and that told in the opening goal as they broke decisively from a Sunderland corner.

Gustavo Hamer, the Championship’s player of the year, led the charge and played a perfect pass to take out three defenders for Campbell to advance and lift the ball expertly over Patterson.

The Blades thought they had doubled their lead before half-time, as Burrows’ first-time shot after Hamer’s corner kick was cleared to him on the edge of the box found its way into the net.

But Sunderland were relieved when VAR, in place for the final, ruled that Patterson’s view of Burrows’ effort was impeded by Vinicius Souza, who was in an offside position.

Substitute Andre Brooks should have finished it for the Blades after 69 minutes when he broke inside the box following a mistake by Dennis Cirkin, but Patterson made a superb block.

Then, with the influential Hamer having limped off, Sunderland produced their first moment of real quality to strike back through a super finish from Mayenda after a clever ball from substitute Patrick Roberts.

Suddenly, the game was in the balance and after centre-back Ahmedhodzic needed treatment for a clash of heads, Sunderland and Watson sensed their moment as the winger picked up Moore’s misplaced pass and, from just outside the box, curled a low shot into the bottom corner to confirm a dream top-flight return.

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