Sheffield United 1 Sunderland 2 – Departing Tommy Watson’s £200m goal secures Premier League promotion

Tommy Watson said he’s looking forward to meeting Sunderland “in the big time” after scoring the goal that won the Championship play-off final in his final game for the North East club before joining Brighton & Hove Albion.

In a remarkable turnaround, Sunderland trailed until the 76th minute before Eliezer Mayenda equalised after Tyrese Campbell had put Sheffield United ahead in the 25th minute.

And the game — and at least £200million ($270m) — was secured when 19-year-old Watson kept his cool to slip in the winning goal in the 95th minute. Watson came through the Sunderland academy but a deal was agreed in April for him to join Brighton this summer.

Here, Philip Buckingham and Tim Spiers break down the game.

Watson the departing hero

Sunderland’s happy knack for the dramatic had brought them to Wembley after Dan Ballard’s 122nd-minute header had conquered Coventry City in the two-legged semi-finals.

The goal that lifted them into the Premier League, though, brought an improbable eclipse.

Five minutes into the seven added on and with a tense game bound for extra time, substitute Watson was gifted the chance to run at Sheffield United’s scrambled defence by Kieffer Moore’s sloppy lay-off.

And run he did. A dart towards his opponents’ box saw everything open up, and the coolest of right-foot finishes was rolled into the bottom corner beyond the dive of Michael Cooper.

Watson was Sunderland’s hero and it could hardly have been a sweeter goodbye to the club he has spent his entire upbringing with. The 19-year-old winger was only sold to Brighton & Hove Albion last month for £10million after a proposed deadline-day move in January failed to go through, with the deal being signed off when the summer transfer window opens.

Watson was able to finish the season with Sunderland, and his wonderful finish ensures he will not be alone in heading to the Premier League in 2025-26.

Philip Buckingham

What can we expect from Sunderland in the Premier League?

Sunderland were a tired, spent force when they finally, after years of escape acts and near-misses, dropped out of the Premier League in 2017.

The whole club needed rebooting — and the Sunderland that the Premier League welcomes back in 2025 are a very different proposition indeed.

For a start they are young. Very young. The average age of the XI that took to the field at Wembley was just 23 years old. When former Bournemouth defender Chris Mepham, who played 61 times in the Premier League, came off the bench in the first half, he took the total amount of Premier League appearances in the Sunderland side to… 61.

High on Sunderland’s priority summer transfer list, then, might be some top-flight nous. But that isn’t exactly how the owners do it at the Stadium of Light; chairman Kyril Louis-Dreyfus is only 28 himself and has placed a strong emphasis on organically growing not just a young, vibrant team but also transforming the culture of the whole club.

They have starlets of the future in local lad Chris Rigg, who is just 17, as well as 20-year-old Wembley goalscorer Mayenda, 23-year-old captain Dan Neil and, of course, one to seriously watch in 19-year-old Jobe Bellingham, younger brother of Jude.

Everything feels new; even manager Regis Le Bris is still pretty new to English football, achieving promotion at the end of his first season in England.

They will need to bring in a prolific goalscorer (their top scorer in all competitions is French forward Wilson Isidor with 13), but there is a freshness and an exuberance about this Sunderland team and indeed the club, one which feels unburdened by its past.

Tim Spiers

Which was the best of the other two goals?

The two opening goals of the game were remarkably similar, both in how they were conceived and in the sumptuous quality of their execution.

It was hard to know who to praise more for Sheffield United’s first-half goal: Gus Hamer for a magnificent assist, or Tyrese Campbell for his finish.

Hamer, breaking from a Sunderland corner, sprinted 50 yards up field and spotted Campbell’s run into the area, picking him out with a precise pass which took out two defenders.

Campbell, son of the late former Arsenal and Everton striker Kevin, hadn’t scored in eight games but finished with nonchalance, taking one touch to set himself up for a cheeky dink over the goalkeeper.

Campbell lifts in the opener (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Sunderland’s equaliser was strikingly similar: Patrick Roberts, from a brisk transition, also took out two players with a gorgeous slipped pass, 20-year-old striker Eliezer Mayenda peeled away to create space, took one superb touch and then blasted it past keeper Michael Cooper into the roof of the net.

Two exceptional finishes fit enough to grace the occasion.

Mayenda equalises before a dramatic finale (Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)

Tim Spiers

How much is this worth to the winner?

Promotion to the Premier League earns at least three years of elevated TV income, first in the form of central distributions while a part of the top division and then, even if 2025-26 brings immediate relegation, at least two seasons of parachute payments.

Quantifying the worth of coming out on top isn’t easy, particularly when the size of the Premier League’s overall TV deal keeps going up year-on-year. But even using a fairly simplistic measure — adding together however much the lowest-earning Premier League club got in the season of a given final, alongside two years worth of parachute payments, again based on the same year — gives a clear answer: winning the Championship play-off final now guarantees you at least £200million in broadcast income over the following three seasons.

Fifteen years ago, that figure was £57million. By 2015, it had more than doubled to £130m. In the past decade, the sum has gone up a further 54 per cent and, in reality, the worth of winning this final is likely even higher than that.

Chris Weatherspoon

Did VAR get a rare Championship review right?

Sheffield United and Sunderland had happily gone through an entire season without the interventions of VAR and ahead of this final, United manager Chris Wilder had outlined his hope it would not be required at Wembley.

The Championship play-off final is the one exception to the campaign’s rule, with the stakes so high and, to Wilder’s ire, it was Sheffield United who were left to curse technology’s introduction late in the first half.

Already a goal up and dominant, a half-cleared corner was volleyed into the Sunderland net by Harrison Burrows from the edge of the penalty area. It was the cue for celebrations… but they did not last.

Burrows’ fine striker is disallowed for offside (Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)

Vinicius Souza had been lurking in an offside position deep inside the six-yard box, close to the eyeline of Sunderland ’keeper Anthony Patterson. The Sheffield United player was not an obvious obstacle to Patterson’s view at the point of the ball being struck, but VAR John Brooks saw enough doubt to lead referee Chris Kavanagh to the pitchside screen.

The eventual decision, predictably, was the goal being ruled out, keeping Sunderland alive in a half that had seen them struggle to gain a foothold. This was only the second game in Sunderland’s history (the 2022 League One play-off final being the other) that had seen VAR in use, and for that they were grateful.

Phil Buckingham

(Top photo: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

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