Pardew joy at Hammers promotion

West Ham 1-0 Preston Preston match reaction

West Ham manager Alan Pardew described victory in the Championship play-off final over Preston as a "job done".

"It's a team effort. We defended well and we're back where we belong," Pardew said after the 1-0 win in Cardiff.

"In adversity, when it mattered, we've won all year and these players deserve the new tag that they've got of Premiership players.

"We're back in the Premiership, we'll do it justice and this lot will work hard next year."

He added: "We've given the fans some heartache but we've done the job, that's all that matters. We proved a lot of people wrong after they said we didn't turn up last year.

"Everyone kept telling us we had to win. You never have to win and that could have been a failure today.

"What you have to do is learn and we learnt from last year and now we're back."

The Hammers went up courtesy of the only goal of the game from Bobby Zamora after 57 minutes.

"It's a dream come true for me and it's unbelievable," he said.

"Play-off games are important games - it has been a difficult season for me, a bit up and down, but it has all come together in the play-offs."

Captain Nigel Reo-Coker credited the squad's battling character for their promotion.

"It's a fantastic feeling, words can't describe what I felt," he said.

"We had a lot of criticism but we had to dig deep and we showed them today.

"There's great solidarity at the club, all the backroom staff had a really tough season and we have to dedicate this to them."