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.
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.
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.
Martin left Swansea to take over at Southampton last summer after a season which had seen Saints sack both Ralph Hasenhuttl and Nathan Jones and end up finishing bottom under Ruben Selles.
The Whites became the first second-tier side to accumulate 90 points and not go up automatically since Sunderland in 1997-98, with the Black Cats also beaten in that season’s play-off final.
Championship PlayOff: Southampton Beat Leeds To Return To Premier League
