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Norwich City Promoted To Premier League

Norwich City Promoted To Premier League

Norwich City have won promotion to the Premier League after defeating Middlesbrough in the Championship play-off final at Wembley.

The Canaries raced into a two-goal lead inside 15 minutes thanks to goals from Cameron Jerome and Nathan Redmond and held on to secure an immediate return to the top flight after being relegated 12 months ago.

Norwich captain Russell Martin told Sky Sports: "It's emotional after last year, which was so hard to take.

"Middlesbrough did brilliantly this season but we put in probably our best performance of the season."

The club can now look forward to a £120m windfall from prize money, TV rights and sponsorship.

Norwich manager Alex Neil told Sky Sports: "I believed we would do it, but it's one thing believing it and another thing doing it.

"Big players arrive on the big stage and you saw that in the first 20 minutes - we were unbelievable. We worked so hard to get here.

"The worst thing you can do is walk off having been scared."

A delighted Delia Smith, who co-owns Norwich, hugged each of the players as they went to get their medals.

She praised Neil, who was a surprise choice for the job when he was appointed in January.

Ms Smith said: "The fans deserve it and I'm so pleased for them.

"We're all nervous but the manager just exudes calm.

"He wasn't at all panicked and that spills over. I can't praise him enough.

"He inspires me, let alone the players. And I'm 74!"

Middlesbrough's team bus arrived late to Wembley after getting stuck in heavy traffic, and Aitor Karanka's team paid the price for failing to get into gear.

Karanka admitted his side paid for their early mistakes.

He told the club's official website: "You can imagine when you lose a game it's always difficult and even more when you lose the final.

"We made mistakes and when you make mistakes it's difficult.

"The first thing that I want to do is congratulate Norwich because they got promotion.

"After that I want to say how proud I am of the players, the chairman, the club and fans because I came here 18 months ago and the team were two points off the relegation position."