Hull City emerged from the chaos of the Championship play-offs to beat Middlesbrough 1-0 in the ‘Spygate’ final at Wembley and seal a return to the Premier League. Oli McBurnie struck in stoppage time to fire the Tigers back to the top-flight after nine years.
McBurnie’s goal meant heartbreak for Middlesbrough, the side who came in from the cold after Southampton were thrown out of the play-offs for spying on them.
It also avoided the threat of more litigation from Hull, whose owner Acun Ilicali vowed to take legal action if his side were not promoted. His contention was that Hull should have gone up automatically when Saints were expelled, rather than face the team who had lost the semi-finals.
In the end if was McBurnie who settled the matter by scoring their third Championship play-off final winner, emulating the Dean Windass-inspired side of 2008 and Mohamed Diame’s class of 2016.
Here are The Yorkshire Post’s player ratings from Wembley Stadium.
25. Matt Targett - 6
An outlet down the left, but couldn’t provide that bit of cutting edge precision. | Owen Humphreys/PA Wire
26. Riley McGree - 7
Threatened in the second half when Hull struggled to contain him. | Ben STANSALL / AFP via Getty Images
27. Morgan Whittaker - 5
Showed why he can be such a frustrating player at times. Moved to centre-forward after Strelec made way. | Paul ELLIS / AFP via Getty Images
28. David Strelec - 5
Dragged Boro’s only real first-half chance wide ahead of the interval. Touch let him down a few times. | John Walton/PA Wire