SOUTHAMPTON beat Leeds in the Championship play-off final to secure an immediate return to the Premier League and the £140m to go with it.
Saints’ 11-year spell in the top flight came to an end after a wretched campaign last time out but, despite finishing one place and three points behind Leeds in fourth, it is they who join Leicester and Ipswich in going up.
Adam Armstrong scored the decisive goal with a clinical finish after being put clear by Will Smallbone.
Leeds substitute Dan James clattered a bouncing ball against the crossbar late on as they pushed for an equaliser but Russell Martin’s men saw out almost 12 minutes of time added on.
Defeat for Leeds consigned them to another season in the Championship and meant they have now lost their past three finals at Wembley without scoring and been unsuccessful in all six of their play-off campaigns.
Saints’ promotion means that all three play-off finals this year were won by the team who had finished lower in the league table, with the team who had finished higher failing to score in all three.
Both teams came into the game off the back of comprehensive second-leg wins in the semi-finals, Leeds beating Norwich 4-0 and Southampton easing to a 3-1 victory over West Bromwich Albion.
There was nothing between the two sides for the first quarter of the game before Armstrong put Saints in front with his 24th goal of a prolific campaign.
Chances were few and far between thereafter, an oddly off-colour Crysencio Summerville shooting wide for Leeds and Samuel Edozie wasting a fine chance on the break for Southampton.
James twice came close to sending the match to extra time but Alex McCarthy made an excellent full-length save from his low 20-yarder after the bar had earlier denied the Welshman.
The win gives Martin, who had been discarded at Norwich as a player in Leeds boss Daniel Farke’s spell at Carrow Road, his first promotion in management.
