IT SIMPLY could not have been closer. It took eight goals and 14 penalties to decide a winner, but eventually Charlton Athletic claimed a place in the Premiership next season - ending a game which took fans, players and managers through the full gamut of emotions.

One man had to take the weight of 77,739 spectators on his shoulders and that man was young Michael Gray, whose under-hit penalty made Charlton keeper Sasa Ilic the hero on a day which threw them up by the fistful as momentum swung one way and then the other. Gray could only stand with his head in hands while the Addicks celebrated a promotion that only the most ardent Valley die-hard would have dared to predict at the start of the season. They were underdogs nine months ago and they were underdogs at Wembley yesterday, despite the form of a defence that's been meaner than Scrooge McDuck in the last two months.

Before this humdinger, Charlton had played almost 14 hours of football without conceding a goal. They conceded four in one hour here but still won the glittering prize of top-flight football and the riches that brings. Three times they looked dead and buried, three times they came back, Sunderland-born Clive Mendonca hitting a thrilling hat-trick that will test the loyalty of his family and friends in the North-East.