Middlesbrough 0-2 Norwich
by Michael McCann
at Wembley Stadium

Norwich City beat Middlesbrough 2-0 in the Championship play-off final at Wembley to complete an immediate return to the Premier League.

Goals from Cameron Jerome, who capitalised on a mistake from Daniel Ayala, and Nathan Redmond, with a powerful angled drive, put Norwich deservedly ahead within 15 minutes.

That came after Bradley Johnson and Jelle Vossen had exchanged hits of the opposition bar in in a game played at a frantic tempo throughout, in front of a raucous 85,636 crowd.

Norwich dominated the first half and Boro improved after the break though both sides were unable to create significant further chances, leaving the Canaries set to benefit from an estimated £120 million financial windfall.

The game began frantically as both bars were rattled within a minute of each other through shots from the edge of the box, after crosses were not cleared.

First, Johnson managed this for Norwich after a delivery from Stephen Whittaker, then Vossen for Boro on the counter-attack — after a nonchalant clearance from Sebastian Bassong.

Norwich led two minutes later as ex-Canary Daniel Ayala was robbed by Jerome near the corner flag in an act of careless defending. The striker then took the ball into the box and slotted in from a tight angle to claim his 21st goal in an impressive season — quite the bargain having been signed for just £1.5m from Stoke City last summer.

The Canaries doubled their lead soon afterwards through good interplay from Whittaker, Wes Hoolahan and Redmond down the right, culminating in the winger scoring with a powerful shot across the goalkeeper.

Thereafter, Norwich held the majority of the possession until after the interval, when Boro improved slightly, though more opportunities on goal were limited.

Ultimately it was the fast start from Norwich that secured them a deserved victory and promotion, a superb effort from manager Alex Neil — the Canaries were 7th in the Championship when he took over in January 2015.