Matt Crooks sends cheeky Middlesbrough FC joke after Hull City promotion | OneFootball

The midfielder's first promotion to the Premier League came at his former club's expense

Hull City supporters are still in dreamland after the club returned to the Premier League for the first time in nine years on Saturday afternoon, defeating Middlesbrough 1-0 in the Championship play-off final at Wembley Stadium.

Despite being made one of the favourites to suffer a potential relegation to League One after surviving on goal difference 12 months ago, Sergej Jakirovic was able to lead the Tigers to one of the most unthinkable promotions in Championship history.

Indeed, the Bosnian and his team were inside the play-off places for 24 consecutive matchdays before falling out of the top six with two games to go, before reclaiming their place on the final day of the regular season, defeating third-placed Millwall in the play-off semi-finals and winning the most lucrative game in club football in dramatic circumstances against Kim Hellberg's outfit after the showpiece event had a rather disruptive build-up.

Despite the fact Hull only had a handful of days to prepare for action against the Teesside club following Southampton's expulsion from the play-offs after the well-documented spygate scandal, Oli McBurnie was the man to write himself firmly into the history books with a 95th-minute strike after Sol Brynn couldn't get a firm hand on a fizzing cross from substitute, Yu Hirakawa.

After celebrating long into the night on Saturday, Jakirovic, his team and owner, Acun Ilicali, were given a heroes' welcome upon their return to East Yorkshire on Monday, although Matt Crooks, who has been in the thick of much of the post-game celebrations and humour, wasn't afraid to take a harmless aim at his former employers.

Matt Crooks issues cheeky 3-word joke at Middlesbrough FC following Hull City's Premier League promotion

Crooks, of course, missed out on promotion to the top-flight through the play-offs with Middlesbrough three years ago, when Michael Carrick's side were beaten by Coventry City at the semi-final stage, with the same fate also applying to Ryan Giles and Paddy McNair, who emerged on the victorious side this time around.

The all-action midfielder made 115 appearances for Middlesbrough, scoring 23 times in the process, before moving to MLS outfit, Real Salt Lake in February 2024 and later returning to the Championship with Hull last January under the management of Ruben Selles.

Crooks scored the vital equaliser away at Portsmouth last May to help aid City's survival cause under the Spaniard, before becoming an integral part of Jakirovic's side this campaign with four goals and as many assists in 31 league appearances.

It is well-documented, though, that his family base is still on Teesside, having taken to social media after the Tigers' 1-0 win at the Riverside Stadium on December 29th to ask if any bars in the town of Yarm would be open until 4AM the following morning.

And, whilst admitting he still has an enormous deal of respect for Middlesbrough, Crooks returned to the North East town after the victory celebrations in Hull's Queen Victoria Square with an Instagram story and caption of "behind enemy lines."

Matt Crooks and his Hull City teammates are now Las Vegas-bound after Wembley triumph

As a result of their promotion triumph, Crooks and his Tigers teammates are bound for Las Vegas after a recent promise from the aforementioned Ilicali.

While the squad continue their celebrations in the Arizona heat, Jakirovic admitted that he will return to Croatia for a brief period, before the 49-year-old and his recruitment team plan further for life in the Premier League.

It has also been well-documented that City have achieved promotion without spending any fees on transfers or loan deals, so many are already intrigued to see how Ilicali will back the head coach after the lifting of a transfer fee restriction ahead of the summer transfer window, which opens in mid-June.