McBurnie’s late winner sinks Middlesbrough and takes Hull into Premier League
What a lot of unnecessary fuss that all was. For all the rigmarole over interns spying at golf courses and which team should be allowed to play at Wembley, it was Hull who were destined to become a Premier League club all along.
Head coach Sergej Jakirovic had described his side as “collateral damage” in the spygate saga that had provided the most extraordinary precursor to this Championship playoff final, forcing him to prepare for the £200m match by analysing the wrong team for more than a week. Best laid plans and all that. After nine years, Hull are back in the top flight.
Following a buildup no one will forget, it was a turgid match that few will ever choose to remember. The only thing that mattered was Oli McBurnie’s stoppage-time winner.
Having sat deep for most the 90 minutes, Hull broke down the left through substitute Yu Hirakawa, whose cross was palmed away by Sol Brynn, but only as far as McBurnie. The Scot could not miss his rebound from a couple of yards.
Victory will come as a relief to many given Hull owner, Acun Ilicali, had vowed that his side would take legal action in the event of defeat here, questioning why an eliminated team had been reinstated. Speaking immediately before kick-off – “now the boys are in the stadium and they will not hear me” – he suggested his lawyers would argue that either Hull should have been declared playoff winners after Southampton’s expulsion or seventh-placed Wrexham inserted into a semi-final against Middlesbrough. Thankfully, the threat will no longer need to be acted upon.
Little over a year ago, Hull supporters were considering life in an alternative division. On that occasion it was relegation to League One that was of paramount concern – a fate they avoided on the final day of the season only thanks to superior goal difference.
They then began this campaign with a three-window transfer fee embargo – later reduced to two – that has left them relying on suitable free agents when looking to strengthen. The pre-season target, admitted Jakirovic, was to finish in the top 10, “but I thought that would be difficult”. To make the playoffs was widely thought inconceivable. To secure Premier League football laughable.
For Middlesbrough, who experienced a rollercoaster of their own in the week before this fixture, the wait for a win at Wembley goes on – six times they have played here, and six times they have been defeated.
Victory must go down as something of a tactical masterstroke by Jakirovic. By the first drinks break, taken in sweltering conditions midway through the opening half, Middlesbrough had been allowed 76% possession, without once testing Ivor Pandur in the Hull goal.
Fans of Jakirovic’s side have become accustomed to a delightful form of perverse inversion in a season where Hull finished second bottom of the Championship’s expected points table and had the fourth-worst defensive record. The ball is not something they often see much of, but that handicap did not prevent them from reaching this Wembley showdown.
The Hull head coach was content in his approach to take against Saturday’s opponents, whose problem for much of the campaign had been actually putting the ball in the net.
Over the course of their two-legged semi-final against Southampton, Middlesbrough took 81 touches inside the opponents’ box and attempted 40 shots for just one solitary goal. Such was Hull’s diligence in defence – content to allow their opponents to knock the ball in unthreatening horizontal lines – that Boro almost wholly failed to raise pulses despite their territorial advantage.
Indeed, it was Hull who came closest to scoring. Lewie Coyle’s header required Brynn to palm the ball to safety, and the Hull’s patience was almost rewarded on the cusp of half-time when McBurnie did brilliantly to nod off Adilson Malanda’s back and against the crossbar with the keeper seemingly beaten.
The game became more stretched as Hull attempted to provide greater attacking threat after the break, but the pattern soon continued – all huff and puff, but no real risk of Middlesbrough scoring.
The cheer that greeted the removal of Hayden Hackney’s substitute’s bib was as loud as any heard inside Wembley to that point. The Boro academy graduate was last month named Championship player of the season, but he had not featured since suffering a groin injury in mid-March, missing Boro’s last 10 games, of which they have won just two, sliding out of the automatic promotion places in the process.
Another Boro substitute, Sontje Hansen, thought he had managed his side’s first shot on target of the match after 81 minutes, but his effort was well tipped round the post before the offside flag was belatedly raised.
Then came the sucker punch that few saw coming. In the fifth minute of injury-time, McBurnie poked home and the amber half of Wembley entered delirium.