Matchwinner’s ‘blessed’ journey from Leith to Wembley

Ricardo Vaz Te admitted to feeling “blessed” after his late strike sealed West Ham’s promotion to the Barclays Premier League as they beat Blackpool 2-1 in the npower Championship play-off final at Wembley.

The game looked to be heading towards extra time after Blackpool’s Thomas Ince cancelled out Carlton Cole’s opener for West Ham early in the second half, but Vaz Te fired Sam Allardyce’s side into the lead in the 87th minute to seal a dramatic win.

And Vaz Te, who joined West Ham from Barnsley in January after a season at Hibernian that appeared to have ended his attempts to be a top-flight player, hailed a superb team effort by the Hammers. “It’s not about the goal, we showed great character. I think we deserved it.

“We’re a Premier League side and we deserved to go up. It’s terrific really. I feel like I have been blessed with a second chance in my career and it’s great to be here.”

Vaz Te also revealed he intends to approach the Premier League full of confidence. “It is another step, a big challenge. We must get there with the mentality that we’re a Premier League side and not there to fight for relegation,” he said. “West Ham is a great club.”

Hammers manager Sam Allardyce, pictured inset with first-team coach Wally Downes, admitted that the immediate return to the Premier League meant “everything”. “Blackpool were easily as good as us today but it is about taking your chances and no more so than today,” he said.

“We managed to swing it just at the death. It’s 49 games and it’s the first one we’ve won in the last few minutes this season. I’m sure [owners] David Sullivan and David Gold will be very happy.

“It was a magnificent game, end to end and in the end we got one more goal than Blackpool. It’s everything to me. It was difficult at the start to turn the club around with the relegation problem we’ve had but we turned it round and came good at the end.”

Cole, whose 35th-minute opener set United on their way to promotion, believes his side deserve to be back in the top flight.

“I thought we could have played better but in the final you have to turn up and put the ball in the back of the net, which we did,” he said.

“We were the favourites to win the league at the start of the season and with that burden Sam’s done brilliantly.”