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Fulham reach Premier League after play-off win over Aston Villa

Guardian sport
Fulham’s Tom Cairney celebrates after scoring at Wembley
Fulham’s Tom Cairney celebrates after scoring at Wembley.Photograph: Nigel French/PA

Fulham have been promoted to the Premier League thanks to a 1-0 victory against Aston Villa in the Championship play-off final at Wembley. Tom Cairney scored the goal that returned them to the top flight four seasons after relegation, after 23 minutes, but they had to hold on for 20 minutes with 10 men after Denis Odoi picked up a second yellow card in a match marred by a number of ugly tackles.

Fulham’s Ryan Fredericks was lucky not to be sent off for stamping on Jack Grealish, who had his own escape later, before being the player fouled when Odoi was sent off.

It was a first win in Fulham’s history at Wembley, the ground their owner, Shahid Khan, hopes to buy, albeit with the club staying at Craven Cottage.

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Slavisa Jokanovic’s side finished third in the table and would have pipped Cardiff to automatic promotion on the last day of the regular season had they won at Birmingham instead of losing and if the Welsh club had not been able to respond to Fulham going ahead with a winner against Reading. As it is, the promotion party was merely delayed for three weeks.

That defeat to Birmingham brought to an end a 23-game unbeaten run that lifted them from 12th in the table in mid-December. It is a second promotion to the top flight in four seasons for Jokanovic, who finished second in the Championship with Watford in 2015, only to leave that summer and move to Maccabi Tel Aviv.

He became Fulham manager in December 2015, helping them avoid relegation that season and finishing sixth in May 2017, losing 2-1 on aggregate to Reading in the Championship play-off semi-finals. Twelve months on they recovered from a 1-0 first-leg defeat at Derby to win their semi-final 2-1 on aggregate, with Ryan Sessegnon and Denis Odoi scoring the goals at Craven Cottage. The rest is now Wembley history.

Key Opta Stats: 

  • Fulham have won promotion via the play-offs for the first time in their history, in what was their fourth play-off campaign.

  • Indeed, Fulham have won a match at Wembley for the first time in the club’s history,losing on their only other visit there in the 1975 FA Cup final (0-2 v West Ham).

  • Since 1988-89, the side finishing third in the second-tier has gained promotion via the play-offs more times than any other position (11/30 – 37%).

  • Fulham will play in the Premier League for the first time since their relegation in 2014 under Felix Magath.

  • This was the sixth successive season which saw at least one side fail to score in a Championship play-off final.

  • Aston Villa have now lost five of their last six games at Wembley stadium (W1), conceding 12 goals in the process.

  • Tom Cairney, who was the 9th Scottish player to score in a second-tier play-off final, became the first player to score a goal for Fulham at Wembley.

  • Ryan Sessegnon has had a hand in more goals in all competitions this season than any other Fulham player (16 goals, 8 assists).

  • Slaviša Jokanović is the first non-British or Irish manager to win two promotions to the Premier League.

  • Denis Odoi became the first player to be sent off in a Championship play-off final since Gary O’Neil for QPR in 2014 - a game in which the Hoops also won 1-0.