Adam Armstrong’s 24th goal of the season enough to send the Saints straight back up
Southampton's Jack Stephens lifts the trophy with team-mates after winning promotion to the Premier League after the Championship playoff final against Leeds United at Wembley Stadium. Photograph: Adam Davy/PA Wire’s squad ventured to the Isle of Wight for a get-together at the end of the regular season, where majority owner, Dragan Solak, who dragged his fingernails down his face during the final minutes here, promised they would have the party of their lives if they sealed promotion.
Then came the killer pass, first from Flynn Downes to feed Ireland international Will Smallbone, who joined Saints as an eight-year-old and was not short of familiar faces in the home support. The Leeds captain, Ethan Ampadu, was guilty of getting sucked into the ball and Smallbone poked a pass into Armstrong, always a willing runner, who galloped into the gaping hole in the centre of the opposition defence.
For Saints, the sight of Summerville, the division’s player of the season, joining Gnonto in the away dugout after his fizz evaporated on a dispiriting afternoon was the closest thing to a veiled compliment given the stakes. There was a reason Martin set about signing Downes on loan from West Ham last summer. Downes, whom Martin signed for his previous club, Swansea City, was omnipresent, one minute a human vacuum of sorts and another breathing life into a Southampton attack. Harwood-Bellis, too, another loanee was again outstanding in defence alongside Jan Bednarek.
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