Swansea City beat Reading to storm into Premier League

Scott Sinclair's hat-trick helped secure Swansea's place in the Premier League

Thousands of Swansea City fans are celebrating after their side beat Reading 4-2 at Wembley to win promotion to the Premier League.

Swansea won the Championship play-off final with a hat-trick from Scott Sinclair and one from Stephen Dobbie despite a strong Reading fight back.

It is estimated the win will net the club up to £90m.

First Minister Carwyn Jones and Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan said the win would benefit Wales as well as Swansea.

The match comes just nine years after the Swans almost went bust.

And it is only eight years since they beat Hull City on the final day of the 2002/03 season to prevent a drop into non-league football.

More than 40,000 Swansea fans were at Wembley to see them go up

But now supporters can look forward to their team taking on the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea.

Reading started strongly but Swansea took the lead with a penalty from Scott Sinclair after 21 minutes.

The noisy Swans supporters were celebrating again just a minute later when Sinclair added a second with a tap in after a mistake by Reading keeper Adam Federici.

It was 3-0 before half time when Stephen Dobbie, who played in Blackpool's play-off win against Cardiff City last season, scored a well-taken goal.

Reading were given hope just after half time when Noel Hunt's header went in off Swansea's Joe Allen from a couple of yards.

Victory parade

And a fight back looked on the cards when Matt Mills made it 3-2 with more than half an hour to play.

But another penalty from Sinclair with 10 minutes left secured promotion for the Swans.

Fans who did not see the game will get the chance to celebrate Swansea's success at a victory parade through the city on Monday.

The open-top bus parade will kick leave the Swans' historic old home at the Vetch Field at 1830 BST on Monday and finish with a civic Reception at the city's Guildhall later in the evening.

Swansea now take their place in the Premier League for the first time, although they last played top flight football in 1982/83 when it was still Division One.

Tribute

Some of the celebrating Swansea fans had travelled to Wembley from all over the world including Canada, United States, Argentina, Trinidad, Russia, Germany, Holland, Thailand and New Zealand.

One fan, Garry George, flew in from Australia..

With most fans travelling by road, an estimated 200 coaches had headed to Wembley from south-west Wales.

The Swans received an initial allocation of 39,376 tickets for the final but were given extra after selling out in less than a week to take the total over 40,000.

As they lined up to receive the play-off trophy, the team revealed a tribute to 22-year-old striker Besian Idrizaj who died last May.

Each player wore a T-shirt bearing a photograph of Idrizaj, who died in his sleep of a suspected heart attack while at home with his family.