Hammers hit £20m jackpot as Bobby ends Premiership exile

West Ham 1 Preston 0

The England Under-21 international scored from close range in the 58th minute of the Championship play-off final against Preston after Claude Davis had slipped attempting to clear Matthew Etherington's left-wing cross.

This win is as much of a relief for the east London club off the field as it is on it.

A reported £30million in debt, Alan Pardew's side needed to win to claim the estimated £20m jackpot for entering the Premiership.

Failure was not an option as they were no longer eligible for the £6m parachute payment given to Championship clubs in their first two seasons after dropping out of the Premiership.

The Hammers, who deserved to win, also had to contend with what appeared to be a serious injury to goalkeeper Jimmy Walker, who seemed to damage his knee catching a cross late on and was replaced by Stephen Bywater.

Preston boss Billy Davies will rue the fact that his side rarely played as well as they can, and Marlon Harewood, Zamora and Etherington all missed chances to make it more convincing for the Hammers, while Tomas Repka hit the post early on.

Manager Alan Pardew praised his side's steel and commitment.

Pardew felt his players deserved to win the game and is now looking forward to his first crack of management in the top flight.

"You can never totally dominate a football game in a play-off final, but we deserved to win," he said.

"I wasn't overjoyed and confident we were going on to win at half-time, but fair play to the players, they had a really strong resolve and spirit and that saw us through.

"I'm chuffed for the team, chuffed for my staff and chuffed for my players."

Although Preston had won their last three games against the London club, they struggled to match West Ham's high-tempo football all afternoon.

Preston will reflect on Richard Cresswell's header that was cleared off the goalline by Shaun Newton, but that was as close as the Lancashire side came to troubling goalkeeper Jimmy Walker.

Pardew has had to divert criticism from supporters calling for his head earlier in the season but he now hopes the club's return to the top flight will finally win over the Upton Park faithful.

"You've just got to stay strong and positive it was important for us so I'm just pleased we got the right result," he added.

"The result is everything for me and the team because it gets our fans buoyant and thinking positively again which are important at a football club.

"Our fans are so delighted after this although they will have a good look at us at Christmas to make sure we are doing our job.

"We will certainly target a mid-table finish which gives us a realistic goal."

Counterpart Billy Davies took the defeat on the chin and believes his players will come back stronger next season.

Davies has worked wonders at Deepdale since taking over from Craig Brown last August and has taken the club from 20th position to fifth in the Championship table.

"My players have been top class this year, they've given us everything they've had," he said.

"I told them in the dressing-room afterwards to be very proud for the season they've given us but on the day, it wasn't to be.

"But it's been a very good learning experience and just to get here was tremendous.

"We just didn't get going in the sense of how we usually play.

"It hurts for everyone at the club the fans again were top class but that's football."

WEST HAM: Walker (Bywater 87), Repka, Ferdinand, Ward, Powell, Newton (Noble 82), Reo-Coker, Mullins, Etherington, Harewood, Zamora (Dailly 74).

PRESTON: Nash, Mawene (Alexander 87), Davis, Lucketti, Hill, Sedgwick (Agyemang 71), McKenna, O'Neil (Etuhu 81), Lewis, Cresswell, Nugent.

Referee: M Riley.