Leeds United 0-1 Southampton: Adam Armstrong’s goal sends Saints back into the Premier League

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 run in the top flight ended after a miserable campaign last time out, but despite finishing a place and three points behind fourth-placed Leeds, they join Leicester and Ipswich on the rise.

Adam Armstrong scored the decisive goal with a clinical finish after being brought down by Will Smallbone.

Leeds substitute Dan James rattled a bouncing ball onto the crossbar late on as they pushed for an equaliser, but Russell Martin’s men almost saw 12 minutes of time added on.

Defeat for Leeds sent them to another season in the Championship and meant they have now lost their last three Wembley finals without scoring and have been unsuccessful in all six play-off campaigns.

Saints’ promotion means that all three of this year’s play-off finals have been won by the team that finished lower in the league table, with the team that finished higher failing to score in all three.

Both teams came into the game on the back of comprehensive second-leg wins in the semi-finals, with Leeds beating Norwich 4-0 and Southampton going down 3-1 to West Bromwich Albion.

There was nothing between the two sides in the first quarter of the game before Armstrong put Saints ahead with his 24th goal of a prolific campaign.

Chances were few and far between after that, with a strangely off-colour Crysencio Summerville firing wide for Leeds and Samuel Edozie wasting a good chance on the break for Southampton.

James came close to sending the game into extra-time twice, but Alex McCarthy pulled off an excellent full-length save from 20 yards after the Welshman had been denied by the bar earlier on.

Victory gives Martin, who had been sidelined at Norwich as a player during Leeds boss Daniel Farke’s time at Carrow Road, his first promotion to management.