Josh Murphy celebrates for Oxford UnitedRex Features

Josh Murphy's double for Oxford United against Bolton Wanderers at Wembley brought his tally to 10 goals for the season

Jay Freeman
BBC Sport at Wembley Stadium

Oxford United ended a 25-year absence from English football's second tier as Josh Murphy's double helped them stun Bolton Wanderers in the League One play-off final at Wembley.

In a cagey first half, Oxford took the lead just past the half-hour mark after Murphy curled a deflected strike home from the edge of the box.

Murphy had only 11 minutes to wait for his next goal, coming via a Ruben Rodrigues pass that carved Bolton open, as he slotted the ball in at Nathan Baxter's near post.

Bolton, who finished third in the table, never looked likely to threaten a comeback and failed to offer a single shot on target during 90 minutes as they missed the chance to return to the Championship after five years away.

Very little divided both sides in the opening stages, with Wanderers' Josh Sheehan first coming close from distance before Rodrigues also went wide from long range at the other end.

Yet it took a moment of genius from Murphy to tip the game in favour of the U's - just when Bolton were beginning to ease into a spell of possession.

Josh Dacres-Cogley tried in vain to thwart Murphy's run into the Bolton penalty area, tugging on his shirt as Murphy darted to his right to make the space to work his shot away.

In the end Wanderers captain Ricardo Santos got his head on to the ball, but only enough to deflect it past the diving Baxter.

Murphy's second goal was just as impressive as his first, timing his run to perfection from a sumptuous Rodrigues through-ball before coolly finishing right in front of Bolton's stunned supporters.

On not one but two occasions Murphy had the chance to wrap up his hat-trick but Wanderers just held on.

It was an afternoon to forget for Ian Evatt's side who looked uncharacteristically off the pace and were poor value given how impressive they had been at points this season during the League One promotion race.

From 5-0 drubbing by Bolton to a win at Wembley

Des Buckingham joined the U’s as head coach part way through the season after it was announced that Liam Manning would depart for Championship side Bristol City - and the trajectory the club have been on since is immense.

Since his arrival in November, the former Mumbai City boss has guided his hometown club to a spot in the play-offs on the final day of the season when they moved up two places to finish fifth.

Yet it was their previous match against Bolton - when Buckingham's side suffered a chastening 5-0 defeat at the Toughsheet Community Stadium in March - that proved to be the impetus they needed.

That loss kick-started an overwhelming upturn in form as they won by four or more goals in three consecutive games in April.

With plans for a new stadium on the horizon, the club will be hoping that promotion to the Championship - with the backing of over 30,000 supporters at Wembley - is a reason to be optimistic about what the future will look like for the U's.

They have not played in English football's second tier since the turn of the millennium, when it was then called Division One in 1999.

The club narrowly missed out on promotion behind closed doors in 2020 against Wycombe Wanderers but put their recent heartache behind them and looked utterly unfazed right from the start.

Murphy's heroic performance means the U's join Portsmouth and Derby County in making the step up into the Championship this campaign.

Bolton's fight deserts them on afternoon to forget

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Bolton Wanderers boss Ian Evatt stands forlorn on the touchline

Five years after their relegation from the Championship, Bolton Wanderers missed the chance of a fairytale return.

Their most recent spell in English football's second tier ended in 2019 at the tail end of former owner Ken Anderson's tenure.

That summer, the club went through the ringer - first entering administration, then being handed a 12-point deduction, before they narrowly averted liquidation.

A final hour takeover, led by chairman Sharon Brittan, rescued the club in August of 2019 with near neighbours Bury - themselves battling their own financial troubles - expelled from the EFL roughly around the time Wanderers were saved.

But even by that early stage of the season their fate was sealed and relegation to League Two followed.

Former Barrow boss Ian Evatt arrived after a Covid-curtailed season off the back of guiding the Bluebirds to the English Football League and was tasked with returning Bolton to the big time.

He led them out of League Two at the first attempt but two bites of the play-off cherry followed in three seasons, culminating in their display against the U's at Wembley.

Gone was the guile they had shown at points this season when they had pushed and pushed for a top-two spot, without the agony of another play-off campaign.

Even in their second-leg defeat by Barnsley there had been a fight about Bolton, battling to the very end.

But, ultimately, from the moment of Murphy's first strike, Wanderers looked down and out and unable to formulate a response to what their opponents had served them.

With some financial big hitters in League One next season, it will be a tough ask to regroup and go yet again for promotion after the manner in which they were beaten.

Referee: Sam Barrott.

Attendance: 70,472.