95th minute winner sees Hull City beat Middlesbrough in Championship playoff final

A 95th minute winner from Oli McBurnie sees Hull City beat Middlesbrough in the 2026 Championship playoff final.

A tense and tight start, Middlesbrough the better side with more of the ball and created chances and Hull not on the attack, but doing enough to keep it goalless.

The 23rd minute was the first real chance for the Tigers, their first touch inside the Boro box, went for a corner, but it came to nothing.

That was followed by the first drinks break of the match. Water on the players’ faces, wet towels on players headed to cope with the heat, 29 degrees at Wembley. Managers in their dark navy jackets.

Defence turned into attack for Hull on the 39th minute, three on four, but Solomon Brynn charged out of his goal to beat Liam Millar to the ball. A vital clearance.

After Hull keeper Ivor Pandur had come off his line to keep out Riley McGree’s effort we then came the closest to seeing a goal.

On 45 minutes, Oli McBurnie with a header against the bar and over. But despite appeals for a corner after the ball had come came off Malanda, goal kick it was.

Injury time saw Middlesbrough go down the other end on a quick release only to see David Strelec with a chance go just wide.

Shortly into the second half began, Hull’s John Egan deflected a strike by Boro’s Morgan Whittaker wide, before Matt Targett’s corner was headed across goal by Dael Fry at the back post, only for it to fall onto the roof of the net.

The game began to open up more, both sides having chances, end-to-end, but it took one goal to win it, absolute scenes in the Hull end.

Sol Brynn with a mistake, fumbling it when Yu Hirakawa sent the ball in, Oli McBurnie found the net from close range, and took his shirt off in celebration.

“Oli McBurnie, he’s got the EYE OF THE TIGER!” 🐯🔥 pic.twitter.com/mbu5sxtTVc

— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) May 23, 2026

Full-time SCENES at Wembley as Hull City are promoted to the Premier League 🔥 pic.twitter.com/xNtXZMBAhx

— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) May 23, 2026

The party has started at Wembley for Hull City 🏆✨ pic.twitter.com/daZd9l9g9v

— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) May 23, 2026

Hull’s Oli McBurnie speaking to Sky Sports: “For the first time ever, I think I’m speechless!

“It’s been a long, hard season and that game today summed us up. We knew we weren’t going to come in and have all of the ball – I don’t think we’ve won a game this year when we’ve had more of the ball than the opposition!

“It was tough out there with the heat and Middlesbrough are a top, top team. We knew we were going to be right up against it, but we felt we’d have one chance and it was written for me to get it.

“I didn’t think it would be so late on, but what a feeling.

“When I first got my move to Sheffield United, it was what they expected of me and I probably wasn’t really ready to be that person.

“As I’ve grown and got older and more mature, I think I’ve grown into that role and I enjoy that. I was looking forward to this game so much I couldn’t sleep last night!”

“There’s just one man I want to celebrate with” ❤️

Lewie Coyle on what being promoted to the Premier League means to him ✨ pic.twitter.com/qyjp3lc1aT

— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) May 23, 2026

Hull captain Lewie Coyle speaking to Sky Sports: “It’s tough. There’s just one man I want to celebrate this with. He’s not with us. I look up at the sky and I had a look up there today. He’s with me, I know he’s with me, for sure.

“The next best thing is I have my family, my beautiful partner, my little boy, my brothers and my friend that have been there since day one.

“I don’t think there’s many people that thought I could captain a side to the Premier League and even saying that out loud sounds a little bit wild. I’m just an honest, humble kid.

“But there’s certainly one man that would have believed in me and that’s my old man – and that’s all I told myself throughout the game.

“He would’ve been saying ‘you can do it, son, f**k them’. I know I swore and I shouldn’t, I apologise, but I had to get it in there because that’s how my old man spoke.

“I just kept replaying those words in my mind and he got us over the line today. I know for a fact my old man did it.”

“I’m going to struggle to put it into words right now…”

Ryan Giles reacts to Hull City’s Championship play-off final win 🏆 pic.twitter.com/ZoKjnRIlE6

— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) May 23, 2026

“I cannot still believe that we did it” 🥹

Sergej Jakirović reacts to Hull City beating Middlesbrough to earn promotion to the Premier League 🔊 pic.twitter.com/sUCkLvaA7b

— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) May 23, 2026

“This is in you, you’re born with this”

Sergej Jakirović on Oli McBurnie 🙌 pic.twitter.com/fkT3HlLHKc

— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) May 23, 2026

Hull head coach Sergej Jakirovic speaking to Sky Sports: “It’s an amazing feeling. I still can’t believe we did it because we suffered a lot all game.

“The regular season was over and this was like starting a completely new tournament, no matter how many points you had.

“It’s about pressure. In the regular season, you have time to fix everything.

“This is a very demanding, very difficult league. I have been working in Turkey, in Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and it’s a little bit different.

“The intensity, with lots of games, is unbelievable.”

“He’s not stubborn.”

Oli McBurnie speaking about Sergej Jakirović 🫡 pic.twitter.com/DyBzx0CNFB

— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) May 23, 2026

Middlesbrough boss Kim Hellberg said, per BBC Sport:

“What has happened made it the toughest two weeks I have had in terms of emotions.

“It’s been tough and draining but it is not an excuse, we were ready to play the game, Hull scored the goal and we have to congratulate them.

“In general the performance was quite good – those types of games are always going to be tight.

“We were not good enough in creating big chances from our opportunites.

“We had a lot of times where we drove the game forward but we didn’t create enough although we defended really well.

“It’s a game of small margins – we did a lot of good things in the game but they scored the goal and we have to congratulate Hull.”

Reflections from Kim Hellberg at Wembley. pic.twitter.com/aeaYBpvR0Q

— Middlesbrough FC (@Boro) May 23, 2026

Hull City owner Acun Ilicali speaking to Sky Sports:

“This is the best day of my life for sure. Because in my career, I managed many successes starting from zero in my business.

“But football is a crazy thing. You can enjoy every moment in every profession. But the enjoyment of football, the goal [going] inside, you win it, this is different for the psychology.”

On his emotional reaction at full-time: “This is the video of my life. This is my family, my daughters, my brother, my wife.

“We waited so much time [in stoppage time at the end]. Last five minutes I couldn’t move because I wouldn’t be able to handle a last-minute goal.”

Here’s how fans reacted after a 95th minute winner sees Hull City beat Middlesbrough in the 2026 Championship playoff final…

@YouBearsssssss: Fair play Hull City promoted to the Premier League👏justice done as Middlesbrough did NOT deserve to be in the Final…. going to be very tough for Hull to stay in the PL but you never know…. #HCAFC #Boro #HULMID

@B3rt1e: Congratulations Hull City, the right way to win promotion, on the pitch, not in the court room! And hopefully this finally puts to bed all the spygate shit! #hcafc

@Bradders_87: The footballing gods have done their thing. Southampton shouldn’t have had the opportunity and Boro had more than enough chances. Football is the winner. Congratulations #HCAFC well deserved. #Boro #SaintsFC

@VitorsWolves: Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha fucking love it!!!!!! Glad #boro didn’t go up & glad #saintsfc didn’t go up aswell! Get in there hull!!!!! #hcafc

@R_J_M_11: We have just witnessed the biggest bottle job in championship history. Over 200 days in the automatic places BOTTLED, knocked out of the Playoffs TWICE 🤣. Couldn’t sell their wembley allocation 🤣. What a pathetic football club 🤣. #boro #utb #hcafc #sfc #itfc

@Carlwilks2011: Nobody in the world had heard of this man at the start of this season. Everyone in the 🌍 knows who he is now, Sergej Jakirovic just incredible what he’s done with his team. Remember we had no money to buy any players with transfer embargo &@acunilicali got us 🔥🔥🔥 #hcafc

@Ben_Nolan93: We are already getting written off for next season but we was written off this season and look what we did bring on the premier league UTT #hcafc

@kierangallop00: Amidst all of the noise, Hull fully deserving of their promotion. What an incredible season, agains the odds 👏 #HCAFC #HULMID

Fucked up top two automatic promotion places.

Lost to #saintsfc in the semi final playoffs.

Got reinstated due to our spying stupidityand then still lost to Hull in the final.

How many chances did #boro actually want to squander promotion with?

See you next season!

LOL pic.twitter.com/sqOtsd0Kut

— Jamie Pragnell (@jamie_pragnell) May 23, 2026