Oli McBurnie said it felt like destiny after his 95th-minute goal at Wembley sealed Hull City’s return to the Premier League.
The striker’s stoppage-time finish gave Sergej Jakirovic’s side a 1-0 victory over Middlesbrough in the Sky Bet Championship play-off final, ending a nine-year absence from the top flight.
“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… we felt we’d have one chance and it was written for me to get it.”
He admitted he hadn’t expected the winner to come so late, but savoured the moment after a campaign in which he finished with 19 goals in all competitions following his summer move from La Liga’s Las Palmas.
“It was tough out there with the heat and Middlesbrough are a top, top team,” McBurnie added. “At times I was knackered but the lads were giving me that extra little bit. When I came back from Las Palmas, I knew some of the lads in the dressing room — it wasn’t all about ability but the character they had. If you surround yourself with enough winners, you are going to win.”
Hull captain Lewie Coyle also reflected on the emotional day, dedicating the achievement to his late father, Chris Coyle, who died suddenly in 2022 and was a familiar figure in the city.
“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. He recalled how his father would have urged him on: “He would’ve been saying ‘you can do it, son, f**k them’.” Coyle said the support of family, his partner and friends made the day even more special.
Hull’s route to the Premier League has confounded expectations. The Tigers finished sixth and became the first team to win promotion from that position via the play-offs since 2010, a remarkable turnaround from the previous season when they were almost relegated to League One.
Sky Sports analysis shows Hull’s campaign bucked the underlying numbers: on expected goals (xG) they performed like a side fighting at the wrong end of the table. According to the data, Hull should have collected around 13 fewer points and conceded roughly 16 more goals over the season.
Despite those figures, Hull conceded 66 goals in the regular Championship season — seven more than Oxford United, who were relegated — and only a handful of teams in the bottom half (Leicester, QPR and Wednesday) conceded more. They also conceded the second-highest number of shots on target in the division.
What compensated was ruthless finishing. Hull boasted the best shot-conversion rate in the league, with McBurnie and team-mate Joe Gelhardt netting 17 and 14 league goals respectively. Both players ranked first and second in the Championship for shots on target, even though several other forwards recorded more overall attempts.
The play-off final winner came in dramatic fashion and capped a season in which Hull repeatedly found ways to snatch results. McBurnie hailed the character in the dressing room and the collective willingness to fight until the end, while manager Jakirovic and the squad now head into the Premier League after an improbable and emotional campaign.