Battling Back Stronger ~ Middlesbrough F.C.

Norwich City have won promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking at Wembley this afternoon after a 2-0 victory in the play-off final against Middlesbrough.

In a match where the winner was to take £120M, Cameron Jerome pounced on an early mistake by Spanish defender, Daniel Ayala. Shortly after it was 2-0, this time it was Nathan Redmond with the goal, Norwich were cruising after just 15 minutes and the fans were going crazy. Jelle Vossen came closest for Middlesbrough, as he struck the bar with a thundering effort, however that proved to be the only real effort from the Teesiders.

The rest of the game was very much just keeping Middlesbrough out and keeping them away from the goal, that's what happened as the rest of the game was seen out and this saw the 85,000 of Norwich celebrate as Alex Neil's Canaries celebrated a remarkable run of wins prove worthwhile.

The 33-year-old was unheralded in England, but presided over Hamilton's promotion to the Scottish Premiership last season. That was enough for him to be given the chance to replace Neil Adams at Carrow Road in January, with the club seventh in the table and three points off the play-offs.

Neil oversaw victory in his maiden game in charge against eventual league champions Bournemouth, the first of 17 wins in 25 games during his tenure, and will now become the youngest manager in England's top flight, beating Swansea's 36-year-old boss Garry Monk.



For his opposite number Aitor Karanka and 'Boro, though, it ends a season that had promised so much end in disappointment as the goals from the Chelsea loanee, Patrick Bamford and the sturdy defence, led by the likes of George Friend saw them reach the play-off with ease.

Karanka, the former assistant manager to Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid, has also seen a great deal of improvement during his 18 months in charge after taking over from Tony Mowbray in November 2013 with the side 16th in the table.

But his side just didn't turn up as ex-Canaries defender Ayala dithered on the ball down their right, allowing Norwich top scorer Jerome to nick it off him, run into the area and calmly slot past Dimi Konstantopoulos at his near post for his 21st of the season. It then got worse as only three minutes later, Norwich, unbeaten on the road under Neil, were 2-0 up against a side who had kept 22 clean sheets this campaign.Steven Whittaker played a great ball into the channel for Redmond and the England Under-21 winger struck home a low effort past a despairing Konstantopoulos to send one end of Wembley into an unexpectedly early ecstasy.

Boro struggled to get any sort of foothold in the game, so at half-time Karanka brought off right-back Dean Whitehead for forward Emilio Nsue.

Boro's main threat came from Albert Adomah down the right, but Norwich's central defensive partnership of Sebastien Bassong and captain Russell Martin dealt with every ball into the middle.
It was in fact Norwich who went closest to getting a third when Redmond fired just wide from a free-kick on the edge of the box.

Bamford then had the chance to pull the ball back to Kike but Scotland international Martin cleared his centre, and Norwich held on to return to the top flight.



With the disappointment of failing at Wembley again, could this be the last we see of Aitor Karanka? Although he did lead the side to 4th, finishing 4 points off the automatic promotion spots, fans and even the board believed he could end the clubs now 5 year spell in the Championship. So we know Middlesbrough will be staying in the Championship, but will Karanka?

Middlesbrough announced the sacking of Karanka this morning and have said this on the club's website, "Following the play-off final loss to Norwich, we have come to decision to terminate the contract of manager Aitor Karanka. We both came to the conclusion that it was best for the club to look for a new manager to lead the line for the club and to now do one better than Aitor, that's to succeed in our quest to get back into the Premier League. We wish Aitor the best in where ever he goes next."

There was much speculation following the play-off final defeat that Karanka was to be sacked and it comes as no surprise for a lot of fans as many voiced there thoughts on Twitter. 'Boro have been linked with ex Swansea manager Michael Laudrup who recently resigned as Qatar club, Lekhwiya SC's manager earlier this month.