Portsmouth 1 - 0 Burnley
Happy chaos reigned over the pitch to the strains of Glad All Over after Portsmouth finally overcame their big night nerves to secure promotion. Fans who first retreated obediently to permit their heroes a lap of honour poured back through the thin yellow line of stewards to mob their greatest hero, the manager Harry Redknapp.
Some 13 months ago he succeeded Graham Rix at a club with a proud history but a previous decade spent fretting only about the perpetual threat of relegation. From penury to the Premiership in just over a year is fairytale stuff.
Portsmouth may well replace West Ham, the club who thought Redknapp had lost the Premiership touch. It was another West Ham cast-off, the Bulgarian Svetoslav Todorov, whose 20th goal of term in the 73rd minute, made the difference.
"It's all a credit to the players for the way they have kept going throughout the campaign," said Redknapp. "Although we had a hiccup against Sheffield Wednesday last Saturday we have lost only five league games all season and to win promotion with four games to go must be good."
The next trick for Redknapp and his mix and match package will be to see off Leicester City's First Division title challenge. Then it will be in to a season laced with both expectation and uncertainty.
Redknapp, a sort of footballing Del Boy, wheeler-dealed one team to go up. Now, somehow, he must find another capable of staying there. That may prove as awkward a task as it was to secure the crucial victory last night.
Redknapp said amid the popping of champagne corks: "I need to bring in a few players for next season but I don't think there will be that much money to spend, so I shall be looking out for a few bargains during the summer."
He may also be looking to persuade his coy chairman, Milan Mandaric, to stay with the dream. Mandaric said: "I told these wonderful supporters to stick with me, trust me and now they have their reward. I don't want to talk about my future tonight. This is a night for the fans and the players. What Harry and his coaching team have done is awesome."
Yet for lengthy periods last night's match threatened to be more about tears of frustration than delight as Portsmouth struggled to beat not only an admirably purposeful Burnley but their own nerves.
Paul Merson should have stilled Portsmouth's anxieties from the penalty spot in the 12th minute after the referee Brian Curson penalised Dean West harshly for felling Gianluca Festa. Merson sent the goalkeeper Nik Michopoulos the wrong way but the ball bounced back off the crossbar and Lee Bradbury's header to the rebound was cleared.
Merson, undeterred, remained Portsmouth's most creative threat. In the 36th minute he curled a cross-cum- shot towards the corner of the six-yard box but Todorov arrived a split-second too late. Three minutes later Merson opened up Burnley again but Bradbury punted over the bar.
The second half went much the same way with Portsmouth wasting too many passes in their excessive urgency to get forward. When they laid siege to Burnley's goal on the hour three shots were blocked in quick succession and the referee waved away the Pompey fans' claims for another penalty, this time for hands against Graham Branch. Branch then denied Portsmouth again with a goalline clearance from Merson as the former England forward tried to bundle home Bradbury's angled drive.
Bradbury, who had run himself into the ground, duly gave way to the substitute Vincent Pericard and that proved the switch that made all the difference. Pericard's virtual first touch released Nigel Quashie whose cross was sidefooted at goal by Todorov. The ball ricocheted off Michopoulos's hands and inside the left-hand post. At last, the champagne could be uncorked - and, with it, the supporters' pent-up ecstasy.