LONDON -- Three quick thoughts from Hull City's 1-0 win against Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship playoff final.
We are often told that promotion at the first attempt, following relegation from the Premier League, is an incredibly difficult thing to do, such are the challenges of the Championship.
However Hull have now joined Burnley in managing it this season after a deserved win over Sheffield Wednesday, which came courtesy of Mo Diame.
The Senegalese scored the only goal of a tense, cagey affair, curling a 72nd-minute shot beautifully into the net from just outside the area. The goal was just about a fair reflection of a game as tense as one might expect an encounter of this magnitude to be.
One of the most striking things upon entering Wembley was the disparity in numbers at either end of the stadium: The Wednesday section was a crammed sea of blue and white, making an almighty din for the whole 90 minutes, whereas the Hull end was rather more sparsely populated.
On the surface it was a deeply curious sight but was in fact reflective of the apathy among Hull support that has been created by disagreements with the club's owners. Chairman Assem Allam, who was not at Wembley due to ill health, has alienated so much of the support through, among other things, a controversial new ticket-pricing scheme and his attempts to change the name of the club.
Promotion might make the club easier for Allam to sell, something he has been trying to do for some time. Meanwhile, questions remain as to whether City manager Steve Bruce will be around to enjoy Hull's return to the top flight.
He has been cagey all season about whether he will still be in charge beyond this summer, for reasons upon which he has never fully expanded, other than to repeat the notion that he will sit down and discuss with whoever is in charge at the end of the campaign.
But all that is for the future. Hull are in the Premier League again and no matter what has happened in the past or might in the future, those fans present at Wembley celebrated wildly.
2. Experience key for Hull
As the game started Hull looked exactly like a team who had finished the regular season nine points ahead of Wednesday and were challenging for automatic promotion for a good portion of the campaign.
They looked more assured going forward, with driving runs from Diame -- one in particular sliced the Wednesday defence like the softest cheese and ended with a shot clanking against the post -- providing the most threat.
Back in February, when Hull were still very firmly in the automatic promotion hunt, Diame made a frank admission: "I'm far from my top level," he said. "I feel like any other player in the Championship but I want to be one of the best players in this league."
Now, the midfielder has gone one better. Operating in the No. 10 role just behind Abel Hernandez, Diame flitted in and out of the game but was still Hull's biggest threat, providing a degree of directness that was lacking elsewhere, even if the quality in their team was still clear.
Hull's team contained the core -- Michael Dawson, Curtis Davies, Tom Huddlestone, Jake Livermore also started -- who came down from the Premier League last season; a collection of experienced players who, perhaps, had calmer heads and the ability to deal with such a colossal game in a more measured fashion.
3. Wednesday's day of woe
In the weeks leading up to the game, Wednesday manager Carlos Carvalhal had been constantly attempting -- sometimes in eccentric fashion -- to dampen expectations, to take the pressure off his side and position them as the underdogs.
However, Wednesday seemed like the 12-day gap between the semifinal and the final had disturbed the rhythm of their excellent late-season form, with attacks not quite knitting together and passes going slightly, frustratingly astray.
That their best player was goalkeeper Keiren Westwood, who made one magnificent save from Hernandez, was a neat summary of how the opening 45 minutes panned out.
Missing out on promotion will be a colossal disappointment, not least to the thousands of fans present at Wembley, but you suspect their time will come. Few expected them to be here at all and the way those in the stands greeted them at the end, with applause and still more singing, shows what a brilliant season they have enjoyed, regardless of this result.
