LONDON (Reuters) – Nottingham Forest beat Huddersfield Town 1-0 in the Championship playoff final at Wembley Stadium on Sunday to return to the Premier League after a 23-year absence.
The decisive goal came in the 43rd minute when Huddersfield defender Levi Colwill deflected a James Garner shot into his own net.
Former European champions Forest were relegated from the top flight in 1999 and they join Bournemouth and Fulham, who won automatic promotion to the Premier League.
Steve Cooper’s side were deserved winners having dominated the first half and then held on to their lead without Huddersfield truly threatening their goal.
“I’m just so proud of the players, staff, fans,” said Forest defender Joe Worrall.
“We’ve been fantastic all season – we were really unlucky to not go up automatically. We’ve played with honesty and we play football the right way,” he said.
Forest were English champions in 1978 under Brian Clough and went on to win the European Cup in 1979 and 1980.
(Reporting by Simon Evans; Editing by Toby Davis)
