SUPER Eagles defender Semi Ajayi was in the starting line-up for Hull City on Saturday night as they defeated Middlesbrough 1-0 in the Championship play-off final to earn promotion to the English Premier League.
Oli McBurnie’s stoppage-time goal gave Hull City the dramatic victory in the Championship play-off final over reinstated Middlesbrough and took the Tigers back to the Premier League for the first time since 2017.
Boro were given a place in the final after Southampton, who beat them over two legs in the semi-final, were expelled on Tuesday for the Spygate scandal.
In sweltering conditions at Wembley, the game looked destined for extra-time before goalkeeper Sol Brynn spilt Yu Hirakawa’s cross and McBurnie buried the loose ball from six yards out.
It ended Hull’s nine-year wait for top-flight football – a year after they avoided relegation to League One on goal difference.
Former Bosnia international Sergej Jakirović, who took over as head coach last summer, has taken the East Yorkshire side up in his first season in English football despite having to operate under a transfer embargo, which was imposed last year as a sanction for making late payments to other clubs.
McBurnie, meanwhile, was this week left out of Scotland’s World Cup squad despite scoring 18 goals this season before his Wembley winner. He will spend the summer at home – but as a Premier League player.
Hull’s triumph also continued their perfect record in Championship play-off finals, each with a 1-0 scoreline.
The build-up to the game was totally dominated by the fallout from Saints being kicked out of the competition.
English Football League chairman Rick Parry admitted in his notes in the match programme that the game had been “overshadowed”, while Tigers boss Jakirovic said pre-game that his side had been the “collateral damage” from the affair.
The Spygate story was initially reported two days before Boro’s first leg against the Saints after a junior member of manager Tonda Eckert’s staff was spotted secretly watching Middlesbrough at their training ground.
Ajayi, 32, has Premier League experience, having playing in the top division with West Brom in the 2020/2021 season.
