No wonder this match is hyped up as "the richest game on earth".For all their disappointment of the previous year, the mood before the game had been one of high expectation for West Ham's fans. It was as if, for much of the afternoon, they were gripped by fatalism."Mourinho - Hammers R Coming," announced one of the many banners waving. "We have got to learn from this experience, but we can be proud of what we have achieved."By the time the victorious players had assembled for their claret-and-blue tickertaped award ceremony, the fans who had been largely tense and quiet until the very last seconds of the seven long minutes added on for injury time were finally able to celebrate their team's return to the place they felt they should never have left. The unpublishable material might have included a reference to Preston's manager Billy Davies, who was involved in angry touchline scenes with Pardew during West Ham's home League defeat by his team earlier this year.Davies, however, was anything but incendiary after a match where the less-fancied challengers produced relatively little. You have to accept what you get sometimes, and learn, and further your career."I got beat in the play-offs with Reading, and then got promoted, and I've done the same here We are back where we belong. We'll add a couple to the team but we'll do ourselves justice."Pardew revealed that, before the match, he had written down the reasons why his players needed to win this match - "some publishable, some not". Both sweet. As the final whistle blew on a season of excruciation and criticism for the wiry, black-tracksuited West Ham manager, he stood on the edge of his technical area, spread both arms out and looked up to the overcast Cardiff skies.Asked afterwards to sum up his feelings, Pardew's response was to the point: "Job done." He accepted it had been a crucial victory, and that it was fair enough he had borne the brunt of increasing unrest from supporters as his team struggled for consistent form."It's been a cycle of misery, but we've broken that today," Pardew said.

"People have been coming up to us and saying 'You have to win, you have got to win.' But you never have to win. "Remember this taste, and make sure you never experience it again." They duly did, and now they - and the 35,000 supporters who travelled once again in hope down the Great Western Line and the M4 - have a new feeling and a new taste to remember. We've put this club back where it belongs, but we had to work hard. We can now look forward to the Premiership."The captain Nigel Reo-Coker said: "It was a fantastic feeling We had a lot of criticism but we showed them today. "Remember this feeling," Alan Pardew had told his players in the bitter aftermath of defeat in last year's Championship play-off final. There's great solidarity, all the backroom staff had a really tough season and we have to dedicate this to them.".

But this is football, we have to learn from the mistakes we've made. We have to dust ourselves down and learn from his."Veteran Teddy Sheringham was ecstatic after watching his childhood team take their place in the Premiership He said: "[They are] fantastic moments I used to support West Ham as a kid and this is special "We have dug deep at times this year and this is fantastic It was very dogged and we had to dig in there. It is massive for the club."Sheringham is keen to extend his career at Upton Park despite turning 40 next April and will sit down with manager Alan Pardew in a bid to secure a new Hammers contract.He said: "Hopefully, we can sort something out this week. I want to play in the Premiership." Sheringham added that he was "confident" he would still be at Upton Park at the start of the new season.Chris Powell, who had been promoted with Charlton earlier in his career, said: "We've been fighting against all the critics, our gaffer has been under pressure but we stood firm. We have to be very proud of our season, we've learnt a lot."But Davies added: "I'd like to see the goal again because it looked like Claude Davis lost his footing, the first goal was crucial.