Hull City 1-0 Middlesborough: 95th-minute McBurnie strike sends Tigers back to Premier League | OneFootball

Ollie McBurnie broke Middlesborough hearts with a 95th minute winner in the Championship playoff final, capping off a fairytale revival under Sergej Jakirovic and sending Hull City back to the Premier League after a nine year absence.

The Scottish striker came closest to opening the scoring when he headed against the crossbar in first-half stoppage time while chances for David Strelec and Dael Fry went amiss for Boro as they battled for a first victory in six matches under the arch.

And he made himself the hero when he slammed in the winning goal after Sol Brynn spilled a low cross in from the left hand side, as Boro’s playoff curse extended in the most extraordinary fashion while Hull, who finished 21st last season, bagged a third consecutive Championship play-off final win.

Having been reinstated in place of Southampton as a result of the spygate saga, it was not to be for Kim Hellbeg’s team as their season came to an end in the cruelest fashion after 104 minutes, thanks to the right foot of Hull hero McBurnie.

As it happened

Both sides were anticipatedly slow out of the blocks in the Wembley sunshine before Alan Browne received treatment after a poorly timed tackle from Hull midfielder Matt Crooks, curtailing a very quiet opening 10 minutes.

The Tigers were more than happy to dig in and withstand the early pressure from Boro, with left back Matt Target bending in a series of dangerous low crosses to no avail as their first attempt on goal from Aiden Morris rolled harmlessly wide.

Headers went array for both sides leading up to the first of two drinks breaks when David Strelec sent Browne’s cross over the bar and Hull captain Lewie Coyle saw his looping header tipped over by Sol Brynn, who refused to take any chances.

Sergej Jakirovic’s side nearly found their reward for some solid defending with an ambitious curling effort from attacking midfielder Mohamed Belloumi, but it sailed not far wide of the post with half-time fast approaching.

Fresh off the disappointment of missing out on the World Cup, target man McBurnie came closest to opening the scoring just before first-half stoppage time when he headed a cross from the left wing onto the crossbar.

Strelec had his side’s best moment on the end of an early kick up the field by Brynn, Morgan Whittaker touching it down effortlessly and shifting it onto the striker, yet the Slovakian fired the shot narrowly wide.

Middlesborough got off to a more lively start to the second half as Whittaker lashed a first-time shot towards goal that deflected behind and towering centre-back Dael Fry headed over at the back post from a corner.

But the ever-reliable Riley McGree gave possession away 30 yards from goal with a careless pass a few minutes later, as Coyle sent in the cross towards Crooks but he couldn’t punish him. The Football League’s showpiece fixture was beginning to open up.

The game soon returned to the knife edge it had been resting on for most of the game, and with nine minutes left substitute Sontje Hansen injected some pace cutting in from the left wing, but was denied by a superb reaction save by Ivor Pandur.

Hansen had begun his run from an offside position, but the Hull keeper was not to know that and did very well to get down to his left and parry the shot around the post, just the one goal likely enough to send either team to the Premier League.

McBurnie bundled in the winner as Brynn attempted to claim the cross into the box from the left but it fell instead to the feet of the Scottish striker to poke home and break Middlesborough hearts.

Hull analysis: Jakirovic takes Tigers from relegation battle to top flight

What makes Hull’s victory at Wembley so remarkable isn’t the fact they’ve now won the Championship play-off final for a third time, nor being the first team to be promoted from 6th place since Blackpool in 2010.

It’s where they began.

The Tigers survived by the skin of their teeth last season, ending up level on 49 points with Luton Town who were relegated on goal difference alone.

Jakirovic walked through the doors at a very challenging time for the club having no experience of English football, when his team were still under the two-window transfer embargo placed upon them in 2025.

The sanction came as a result of owing roughly £1m in unpaid fees for the loan signing of striker Louie Barry from Aston Vila, a sign of the underlying financial instability under controversial former owner Assem Allam.

But Hull’s past suffering will soon become a distant memory, thanks to some of the shrewdest spending in Championship history – including the £50,000 spent on midfielder Regan Slater, the first signing under Assem’s successor Acun Ilicali – and mastering of the counter attack.

Opting to focus recruitment on proven experience over a more experimental transfer policy or over-investment in young talent, Ollie McBurnie has proved to be the signing of the season with the value behind his 95th-minute winner.

And now the Tigers will be free to spend a fee on a signing in the summer transfer window prior to the return of the Premier League, the only way is up given where their story under Jakirovic began.

The result came after the Turkish broadcaster promised legal action should Hull have been defeated by Middlesborough, which now unlikely to manifest, branding Boro’s reinstation into the final “unbelievable”.

It will be a day that will stick in the minds of Tigers fans for some time, as they revel in a first season in the top flight for nine years – an achievement they would likely have laughed off this time last year.

Middlesborough analysis: cruel end to spygate saga as Wembley curse continues

As for Middlesborough, today’s result extends a much unwanted record at the bastion of English football.

The defeat to Hull marks their prolonged wait for a victory at the new Wembley, having been unsuccessful in all of their six attempts since 1990.

It is also the second time in a row that Boro failed to claim the last spot in the Premier League, falling to a 2-0 defeat against Norwich City in 2015.

Kim Hellberg’s side have arguably had one of the most challenging leadup to the playoff final in Championship history, in lasting all of three days as they remained in training anticipating Southampton’s eventual expulsion.

The victims of spygate were left in limbo awaiting the verdict from the EFL’s independent disciplinary commission, and dominated today’s closely contested final.

Boro managed to restrict McBurnie to just two touches inside the penalty area, yet one of them bagged the 95t-minute winner.

The team from Teesside were cruelly short on time all over again.

Hellberg’s side certainly have the license to feel hard done by, not only for how the last few days have panned out but the fact they spent over 200 in the automatic promotion places and looking nailed on for a first season in the Premier League since 2017, when Hull also went back down.

But only one of them would return to the top flight, and on this occasion it was the Tigers – likely in part due to a factor, unlike the need to be more clinical this afternoon, that was completely out of Boro’s control.