Huddersfield Town has won promotion to the English Premier League with a 4-3 victory on penalties over Reading in the Championship play-off final at Wembley Monday afternoon.
Huddersfield finished the Championship season in the fifth position with 81 points before going into the play-off. Town will now join Newcastle United and Brighton as the teams to play in the topflight Premier League next season.
Christopher Schindler struck the winning spot-kick, after Danny Ward had saved from Reading’s Jordan Obita.
The Terriers’ Izzy Brown missed the best chance in normal time, placing wide from two yards at the far post.
Town will return to the top flight for the first time since 1972, but Reading who finished third on 85 points in the regular season now faces a fifth straight year outside the Premiership.
What perhaps makes Huddersfield’s play-off final win even more incredible is that they scored just once in their three play-off games.
Their season has been marked by their ability to find a way to win games, with 22 of their 25 league victories coming by a single-goal margin. Despite so many victories, they ended the regular season with a negative goal difference. They scored 56 times and conceded 58 goals.
Promotion to the Premier League vindicates David Wagner’s decision to turn down both Aston Villa and German side Wolfsburg before Christmas.
Whether they can now buck the trend which has seen the last three Championship play-off final winners relegated straight back to the second tier remains to be seen but their new standing should make a compelling case for the 45-year-old to remain at the John Smith’s Stadium this summer at least.
