Cairney sends Fulham into Premier League at Aston Villa's expense

Fulham is back in the big time.

Tom Cairney's first-half finish against Aston Villa on Saturday lifted the Cottagers into the Premier League after a four-year drought.

The Nottingham native latched onto a through-ball from Ryan Sessegnon after 23 minutes to put Fulham ahead, and then the capital club managed to hold on when Aston Villa piled on the pressure in the second half. Slavisa Jokanovic's side also had to play with 10 men from 70 minutes when Denis Odoi - scorer of the winner against Derby County in the semi-finals - was shown his second yellow card.

Both teams emerged from the tunnel at Wembley in sweltering temperatures, but managed to play to a decent tempo in a fiercely contested affair.

The deadlock was broken when Sessegnon managed to corral the ball after a heavy touch, and then slid a pass between seasoned veterans Alan Hutton and John Terry and into the path of Cairney. Sessegnon appeared destined for the top flight whether Fulham won or not, and Cairney, for whom it is a mystery why a Premier League team hasn't snaffled him up over the past few years, slotted past Sam Johnstone with an icy composure.

While that was a glimpse of the slick football that Fulham has played during Jokanovic's reign, the Londoners were also matching match Villa's physicality. Jack Grealish was the recipient of a few strong challenges in the opening stanza.

Grealish came closest for Villa in the first half, smashing over from a tight angle after latching onto an intelligent dinked free-kick from Robert Snodgrass.

Grealish was central to Villa's greater attacking emphasis after the break, notably dribbling through a few white shirts before firing straight at Marcus Bettinelli. There were calls for the much-improved Englishman to be shown red, however, when he made an ugly late challenge on Cairney just after an hour.

But it was Fulham which was reduced to 10 men. Odoi was dismissed by referee Anthony Taylor for a second yellow card after performing a clumsy high challenge on Grealish 70 minutes into the clash.

Fulham returns to the promised land after dropping into the Championship in 2014, joining Wolverhampton Wanderers and Cardiff City as this season's promoted outfits.