KOMPANY'S CLARETS HIT THE BIG TIME

Roberts' goal seals immediate return

- Chris Dunlavy

AS WONDERWALL boomed through the walls of Burnley’s dressing room, joyous Clarets players sprayed champagne and bellowed out the chorus.

Outside, the 2,069 supporters who’d trekked across the Pennines sang their own song. “We are Premier League,” they roared, long after the home end had emptied and the cameras were packed away.

Eleven months earlier Burnley had slipped out of the top flight, and few anticipated such a swift or emphatic return.

Their style was outdated. Their squad past its best. Off the pitch, their first-year parachute payment was entirely swallowed by the enforced repayment of a £65m loan as part of ALK Capital’s controversial takeover.

Ben Mee departed. Nick Pope, too. Dwight McNeil and Maxwell Cornet weren’t far behind. For Vincent Kompany, the former Manchester City captain recruited from Anderlecht to lead the rebuild, it was a formidable task.

Yet in less than a year, the Belgian turned Burnley into one of the greatest Championship sides ever seen, and on Friday night against Middlesbrough they were rewarded with a promotion that has long been inevitable.