Saints march back into Premier League at Leeds' expense

Southampton secured an instant return to the Premier League after Adam Armstrong struck in the first half to haunt Leeds again and earn his team a precious 1-0 win at Wembley.

Saints had won the previous two Sky Bet Championship meetings with their fellow play-off finalists and Armstrong had been on target on both occasions.

History repeated itself at Wembley, with Armstrong able to find the bottom corner midway through the first half for his 24th goal of the campaign and it proved enough to send Russell Martin's team back into the top flight.

It means Leeds, who went close late on when substitute Dan James hit the crossbar, suffered more play-off pain with this a sixth consecutive time they have failed to go up via that route.

Leeds and Southampton were unchanged after impressive second-leg victories over Norwich and West Brom respectively last week and walked out to a raucous but wet Wembley.

Victory in the fixture - dubbed the richest match in football - would be worth an estimated £140million in revenue according to Deloitte and the scale of the prize on offer usually contributed towards cagey affairs.

Farke's men were quick out the traps and Archie Gray, the youngest Leeds player to appear at Wembley, and Wilfried Gnonto had early shots saved by Alex McCarthy, who had not started a league fixture this season for Saints until last month.

Back came Southampton, with Armstrong unable to pick out Will Smallbone in the area before Smallbone had a curled free-kick parried wide by Illan Meslier.

The sun started to break through soon after and with 24 minutes played, it was Saints who broke the deadlock.

Southampton exploited their numerical advantage in midfield, with Flynn Downes able to find Smallbone, who played in Armstrong and