\n Tyler Silsby\u2019s second-half goal gave them a 1-0 win over Manchester United in the PL2 play-off final.\n<\/p>\n
\n It was an advantage they preserved heroically as United piled men forward and plied their biggest threat Shea Lacey with possession in the closing stages.\n<\/p>\n
\n In the end, the hosts arguably deserved their win after showing two very different sides of their game.\n<\/p>\n
\n They zipped the ball about with confidence in a free-flowing first half.\n<\/p>\n
\n Harry Howell forced United goalkeeper Will Murdock into a smart grab inside three minutes.\n<\/p>\n
\n But Daniel Gore, who played 41 games on loan at Rotherham this season, sent a good chance over for United from a rapid counter-raid.\n<\/p>\n
\n Albion wingers Silsby and Miah Oriola quickly showed they could beat their full-backs but the end product was a little wayward.\n<\/p>\n
\n Not least when Silsby blazed wide on 25 minutes after brilliant work by Shane Nti to send him through.\n<\/p>\n
\n Albion should have gone ahead on the half-hour. They won possession high up and Oriola, having drifted infield, released Josh Robertson outside him.\n<\/p>\n
\n But the midfielder shot straight at Murdock.\n<\/p>\n
\n Howell fizzed a shot narrowly over after being picked out by a clever pass from centre-back Noel Atom.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Albion defender missed a straightforward through ball late in the half but got back well to block the resulting shot by Victor Musa.\n<\/p>\n
\n And Nti sent a great chance wide soon after when a short back pass sent him racing clear.\n<\/p>\n
\n Seb Jensen made a decent save diving to his right to parry from Lacey right at the end of the half but the fear at the interval was that Albion had missed their opportunity.\n<\/p>\n
\n As it was, they went ahead in the 58th minute with both their dangerous wingers involved.\n<\/p>\n
\n Silsby was the scorer at the far post after Oriola had released Sean Keogh, whose low cross was allowed to travel a long way.\n<\/p>\n
\n Albion sub Zane Albarus almost added insurance when his volley flew narrowly wide.\n<\/p>\n
\n But mainly it was about digging in and defending.\n<\/p>\n
\n United\u2019s response was all about the trickery of Lacey, who looked to create space for others and also chipped a cross on to the roof of the net.\n<\/p>\n
\n Jensen stretched to tip over Jack Fletcher\u2019s header and Atom and Ben Barclay both put in crucial challenges in front of goal.\n<\/p>\n
\n And then, after eight tense minutes of stoppage time, it was all about celebration.\n<\/p>\n
\n Albion, not United or Manchester City or Arsenal, are Premier League champions.\n<\/p>\n
\n Albion: Jensen; Mackley, Barclay, Atom, Keogh (West 75); Middleton (Albarus 61), Robertson; Silsby, Howell (Shaw 75), Oriola; Nti. Unused subs: L.Ferdinand, Belmont.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tyler Silsby\u2019s second-half goal gave them a 1-0 win over Manchester United in the PL2 play-off final. It…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":965755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-965754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116587632304278454","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/965755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}