Hull City striker Oli McBurnie said the moment had been building toward all season — and that it was “written for me” to score the decisive goal in the Sky Bet Championship play-off final that secured the Tigers’ return to the Premier League.
The 29-year-old netted in the 95th minute at Wembley, tipping the match 1-0 past Middlesbrough after a goalkeeping error from Sol Brynn. It was a historic result, ending nine years away from the top flight and capping a remarkable turnaround for Sergej Jakirovic’s side.
“For the first time ever, I think I’m speechless,” McBurnie told Sky Sports. “It’s been a long, hard season and that game today summed us up. We knew we weren’t going to come in and have all of the ball — I don’t think we’ve won a game this year when we’ve had more of the ball than the opposition.”
“It was tough out there with the heat and Middlesbrough are a top, top team. We knew we were going to be right up against it, but we felt we’d have one chance and it was written for me to get it. I didn’t think it would be so late on, but what a feeling.”
When he first moved to Sheffield United, McBurnie said he wasn’t quite ready for the expectations placed on him. But maturity has brought clarity.
“When I first got my move to Sheffield United, it was what they expected of me and I probably wasn’t really ready to be that person,” he said. “As I’ve grown and got older and more mature, I think I’ve grown into that role and I enjoy that. I was looking forward to this game so much I couldn’t sleep last night!”
McBurnie joined Hull from La Liga side Las Palmas last summer and scored 19 goals in all competitions, including the winner at Wembley.
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Oli McBurnie scored the 95th-minute winner for Hull at Wembley
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Oli McBurnie scored a late winner for Hull City in the Championship play-off final against Middlesbrough at Wembley Stadium after Sol Brynn goalkeeping error.“When I came back from Las Palmas, I knew some of the lads in the dressing room, whether I’d played with them or against them,” he added. “It wasn’t all about the ability that they had but also the character they had. I knew I was going into a dressing room with winners. If you surround yourself with enough winners, you are going to win.
“When things get tough, you look around and you have 10 other men who you really want to go to war with and fight with. That’s what it was out there today. At times, I was knackered but the lads were giving me that extra little bit.
“There are games this season where people will be wondering how we’ve won a game, a bit like today, but it is down to the character of the boys in the dressing room. I can’t speak highly enough of them.”
Hull captain Lewie Coyle delivered an emotional tribute to his late father, who he said would have been the one person he most wanted to celebrate with.
“It’s tough. There’s just one man I want to celebrate this with. He’s not with us. I look up at the sky and I had a look up there today. He’s with me, I know he’s with me, for sure,” Coyle said. “The next best thing is I have my family, my beautiful partner, my little boy, my brothers and my friends that have been there since day one.
“I don’t think there’s many people that thought I could captain a side to the Premier League and even saying that out loud sounds a little bit wild. I’m just an honest, humble kid. But there’s certainly one man that would have believed in me and that’s my old man — and that’s all I told myself throughout the game.
“He would’ve been saying ‘you can do it, son, f**k them’. I know I swore and I shouldn’t, I apologise, but I had to get it in there because that’s how my old man spoke. I just kept replaying those words in my mind and he got us over the line today. I know for a fact my old man did it.”
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Hull captain Lewie Coyle lifts the Championship play-off final winners' trophyHull have defied data and logic to seal Premier League return
Analysis by Sky Sports’ Sam Blitz:
This time last year, Hull City were one game away from dropping to League One. A year later, they are in the Premier League.
They have gone from surviving in the Championship on goal difference last season to becoming the first sixth-placed team to be promoted since 2010.
A deeper look into Hull’s season reveals a team that is defying logic, not just recent history. If matches were decided by expected goals (xG) — a dataset at the heart of the modern game — the story would look very different.
According to the numbers, Hull should have finished second-bottom this term. The relegation they narrowly avoided last season should have materialised. The data suggests they should have picked up 13 fewer points than they actually did and conceded around 16 more goals.
Normally, such discrepancies are attributed to a strong defensive structure or an outstanding goalkeeper. Yet Hull have been one of the leakiest teams in the Championship, conceding 66 goals in the regular season — seven more than relegated Oxford United. Only three teams in the bottom half of the table — Leicester, QPR and Wednesday — conceded more.
Hull also conceded the second-highest number of shots on target in the division. What sets them apart, however, is their clinical finishing. The Tigers boast the best shot conversion rate in the Championship, and much of that firepower comes from Oli McBurnie and Joe Gelhardt.
With 17 and 14 league goals respectively, the pair rank first and second in the division for shots on target — even though every other forward in the top 10 for that category has taken more attempts.
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