Sunderland moved a step closer to an immediate return to the Championship as they saw off Portsmouth to reach the League One play-off final.
After a goalless and fractious second leg, Chris Maguire’s volley from the first leg at the Stadium of Light was enough to get them to Wembley.
It was revenge for the Black Cats, who lost the Checkatrade Trophy final on penalties to the same opposition in March.
Two fine saves by Jon McLaughlin in either half from Gareth Evans and James Vaughan headers, and Matt Clarke nodding a corner on to the crossbar, were the closest Pompey came to drawing level on aggregate.
Sunderland will face either Charlton Athletic or Doncaster Rovers in the final on Sunday, 26 May, with the Addicks holding a 2-1 lead going into Friday’s second leg.
Portsmouth are still to win a play-off match in six attempts and will remain in League One for a third successive season.
A tempestuous and scrappy game failed to live up to the hype and followed a similar pattern to the first leg in terms of a lack of chances at either end.
There was ill-discipline throughout on a night when referee Peter Bankes showed six yellow cards.
At one stage, frustrations among the capacity crowd threatened to spill on to the pitch when Sunderland full-back Luke O’Nien accidentally landed in the front rows of touchline seating when trying to keep the ball in play and then had to be dragged away by team-mates from a spectator.
O’Nien did not let the incident distract him and, as Portsmouth’s frustrations at a lack of penetration grew in the closing stages, Sunderland were more than comfortable holding on to their 1-0 aggregate lead.
Manager Jack Ross has now taken the Mackems to Wembley twice in his first season in charge and knows one more win would provide a happy ending to another turbulent campaign off the pitch with uncertainty surrounding the future ownership of the club.
Hope and despair in equal measure
While one club has a big day at Wembley to look forward to in Sunderland, the other in Portsmouth will be left contemplating what might have been.
Many pundits had both sides down as automatic promotion favourites at the start of the season, but their lack of respective consistency ultimately left them behind Luton Town and Barnsley.
Promotion for Sunderland would end a sorry two years in the club’s history after back-to-back relegations from the Premier League and Championship.
Portsmouth remain ambitious and determined to continue their climb back up the divisions, but a failure once again to win a play-off tie will be a frustration.
Automatic promotion was in their own hands in the closing stages of the season, but the play-offs may well have represented two games too many for Kenny Jackett’s side.
