Championship play-off final: Aston Villa 2 Derby County 1 - Report and pictures

Anwar El Ghazi and John McGinn scored with headers in both halves to seal the club’s return to the top flight after a three-year absence.

Villa were made to sweat for the victory after Martyn Waghorn pulled one back for the Rams late on.

But Dean Smith’s men held on to complete a superb end to a season which looked finished back in February.

The victory was their 12th in the final 15 matches of the campaign and perhaps fittingly earned with two headed goals, from the team that has scored more than any other in the top four leagues of English football.

El Ghazi nodded home just before the break to give Villa the upper hand, before McGinn pounced on an error by Derby keeper Kelle Roos to double the lead.

At that point Villa looked to be cruising it but Waghorn’s goal with nine minutes remaining, coupled with an injury to Tyrone Mings, gave the Rams hope.

But Villa held on to seal a promotion and banish the heartache of a year ago when they lost at the same stage to Fulham.

Promotion will likely allow them to keep hold of star men Jack Grealish and McGinn.

A club which last summer faced one of its darkest hours may now be set for a very bright future.

Villa’s team featured just one change from the one which began the semi-final second leg at The Hawthorns, with Albert Adomah replacing Andre Green on the wing.

That meant Conor Hourihane kept his place alongside Grealish and McGinn in midfield, with Smith making clear his intention to take the game to the Rams.

That is precisely what happened.

Villa’s first sight of goal came inside the opening five minutes. A Grealish corner from the left wing found its way through to the far post but though Axel Tuanzebe was able to chest the ball down, he was unable to was unable to make a clean connection with a left-footed shot before Derby hacked clear.

An even better opportunity would then come the skipper’s own way. With the Rams getting pushed back, goalkeeper Kelle Roos sliced a goal-kick straight to McGinn 40 yards out.

One touch saw the ball quickly redirected into the path of Grealish, who had time to take one of his own before, with the noise at the Villa end of the stadium rising in anticipation, sending his shot from 20 yards out fizzing over the bar.

El Ghazi was proving a useful outlet for Smith’s men on the left flank and it required a well-timed challenge from Derby skipper Richard Keogh to dispossess the Dutchman, after he had burst from the halfway line and into the opposing box.

John McGinn also sent two efforts off target from the edge of the box as Villa continued to make the early running.

Yet Derby, with Mount, Lawrence and Wilson all impressive on the ball, always posed a threat and as the half wore on the Rams gradually began to grow into the game.

It required a timely touch from Hourihane to knock Lawrence off his stride before he blasted a 25-yard effort well wide.

Mount then sent a fierce effort into Jed Steer’s midrift after the Rams had broken down Villa’s left.

Too often, however, the Rams found promising attacks breaking down due to their lack of pace in central midfield, with Villa frequently able to get men behind the ball.

As the clock ticked past the half-hour mark, Villa carved out their best chance so far.

Hourihane picked up the ball in the centre circle and turning, found Abraham in space 25 yards from goal. The striker ran at a backtracking Keogh before sending a rising shot just over the bar from the edge of the box.

Keogh was in the right place at the right time again to get a foot in and take the ball off El Ghazi after another impressive charge into the Derby box.

He could do nothing, however, to prevent the winger opening the scoring one minute before the break.

The move began deep in Villa’s half but accelerated when Hourihane sent Adomah scampering away down the right. He played the ball back Elmohamady, who took a touch before delivering a cross which El Ghazi, diving in between two defenders, sent beyond Roos and into the bottom corner, the final touch coming off his shoulder.

The teams left the field at the break to deafening noise from the Villa supporters and their team emerged for the second period looking in the mood to quickly finish the job.

A second might quickly have arrived had referee Paul Tierney not signalled for a foul on Abraham just when the striker, having impressively rode a series of challenges, appeared to have played in El Ghazi.

With the noise levels rising, so did the temperature on the pitch. Hourihane was booked for tripping Wilson, while a brief melee ensued when Tom Huddlestone felled Grealish.

It was Villa who were looking by far the calmer of the two sides on the ball, though, with Roos almost coming a cropper when he dallied eight yards out and only just escaped the clutches of McGinn before clearing hurriedly for a throw.

The goalkeeper’s blushes were, it turned out, spared for only a few moments.

El Ghazi cut in from the left and hit a right-footed shot which hit a defender and spiralled high into the air. It looked to be Roos’s to claim but with McGinn steaming in he lost concentration, failed to catch the ball cleanly and only succeeded in directing it on to the head of McGinn.

For a moment, time seemed to stand still as the ball bounced over the line, before the stands erupted and McGinn went racing off down the touchline before sliding on his chest in front of the fans.

Of his seven goals this season, it was by far the scrappiest, yet by a long, long way the most precious.

Derby, however, were not done. The introductions of Waghorn, Marriott and Florian Jozefzoon gave new life to the Rams.

Marriott hooked an effort just off target as the clock ticked inside 15 minutes to play.

Then, with nine minutes to go, Lampard’s men were right back in it.

A long ball from the back set Waghorn clear and he looked destined to score before Mings dived in, superbly, to nick the ball away.

But the centre-back hurt himself and remained on the floor when the ball was returned into the box and Marriott’s shot took a flick off the boot of Waghorn on its way into the net.

With Mings unable to continue and Kortney Hause on in his place, it was now the Derby fans in full voice.

But Villa held on, through seven agonising minutes of stoppage time, to reach the promised land.

Teams

Villa (4-3-3): Steer, Elmohamady, Tuanzebe, Mings (Hause 86), Taylor, McGinn, Hourihane, Grealish, Adomah (Green 73), Abraham, El Ghazi Subs not used: Whelan, Lansbury, Jedinak, Kodjia, Kalinic (gk).

Derby (4-2-3-1): Roos, Bogle, Keogh ©, Tomori, Cole, Johnson, Huddlestone (Marriott 63), Wilson, Mount, Lawrence (Jozefzoon 73), Bennett (Waghorn 69) Subs not used: Evans, MacDonald, Knight, Carson (gk).