BURNLEY 1, SHEFFIELD UTD 0

VICTORIOUS Burnley boss Owen Coyle distanced himself from the Celtic manager's job after guiding the Clarets back to the top flight of English football for the first time in 33 years.

Burnley were still attempting to clamber into the Premier League by beating Sheffield United in the £60million game at Wembley when news of Gordon Strachan's departure from Parkhead was confirmed, with Coyle's name immediately jumping to the head of bookmakers' lists.

However, while not rejecting the possibility of an approach from the Glasgow giants, Coyle did make it clear he intends to remain in charge at Turf Moor as they eagerly wait to take their place among the elite.

"I didn't know there was a vacancy at Celtic," he said. "It's flattering that people mention your name, but I'm with Burnley. I'll concentrate my job on what I am doing here, and long may that continue."

Chairman Barry Kilby questioned why Coyle would want to quit and deny himself the chance to build on his incredible achievement.

"I have nothing but praise for Owen," he said. "He has worked on one of the smallest budgets in the whole of the Championship and has done a fantastic job.

WADE TO GO - Wade Elliott (left) curls in his superb winner for Burnley

"He is ambitious and young but he is contracted to Burnley and he relishes the prospect of pitting his wits against the best, managing Burnley in the Premier League."

The chance of going head-to-head with Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Rafael Benitez certainly appeals to Coyle, who can't wait to test himself in the "best league in the world".

"The Premier League is full of the best players in the world, and some of the top managers in Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger and so forth," he said.

However, Coyle knows exactly how difficult it is going to be, putting the difference between small town Burnley and the sides they must now face in stark perspective.

BOYS OWEN STUFF - Burnley boss Owen Coyle enjoys the Wembley win

"We had 36,000 supporters here today, which is about half our population," said Coyle. "That means when Manchester United play at home there are more people at Old Trafford than there are in the whole town of Burnley."

Strictly teetotal, Coyle did not feel like cracking open the champagne even when Wade Elliott curled his side into a superb 13th-minute lead.

For all the penalty claims Sheffield United had, the Clarets were the better side throughout and would have won by a bigger margin if Robbie Blake had been able to take one of the two chances which came his way in the second half.

The Blades last chance disappeared with the dismissal of Jamie Ward and they ended an unhappy afternoon with only nine men as Lee Hendrie was red carded by referee Mike Dean after the final whistle.

The campaign started with a 4-1 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday, followed by a home hammering by Ipswich, so it represented a great ending for a club which came within two minutes of reaching their Carling Cup final after agonisingly missing out on adding Tottenham to a list of scalps that included Fulham, Chelsea and Arsenal.

A night of celebration - Coca-Cola the drink of choice for Coyle - will follow before the hard work of staying in the top flight begins as Burnley attempt to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their league championship success by remaining among the elite.

"The exposure will help," he said. "Burnley, as a town, is having a tough time with the credit crunch. But we are under no illusions about how difficult it will be. We will need to add to the squad we have. But we'll have terrific spirit.

Buzzing

"We're not being delusional now, but if we finish fourth bottom it will be a better achievement than where we've finished now. We will be underdogs home and away.

"We've played 61 games, had a cup run and now we've gone up at Wembley - it can't get any better. We had a couple of chances to finish it off - it would have been good to get a second goal but one was enough. We thoroughly deserve the victory.

"We had belief all week long we'd do it. We had confidence in our ability and we had the players to score goals at any moment - we've had it all season and come up with the goods again today."

Captain Graham Alexander said: "I was promoted with Preston nine years ago but I'm buzzing to achieve something with a team like this. They're a great bunch of boys. Everyone deserves it who's part of the club and I think overall we deserved it today.

"We had some great chances - especially in the second half - but Sheffield United are a great team - they kept coming back at us. I've been there twice (beaten in the play-offs) and it's horrible but they'll come back stronger. I'm going to celebrate and enjoy it for as long as possible."

• LARS JACOBSEN JOINING NEW BOYS

This article has 3 comments