Norwich City have returned to the Premier League after just one season away by seeing off Middlesbrough 2-0 in Bank Holiday Monday's Championship playoff final.

One point separated the two sides after 46 games of the regular season, but on the day at Wembley Norwich dominated and early goals from Cameron Jerome and Nathan Redmond settled matters.

Boro will have to endure a seventh straight season in the second tier, while Norwich join Bournemouth and Watford in going up.

Here, Sports Mole picks apart today's game at the national stadium.

Match statistics

BORO
Shots: 8
On target: 1
Possession: 57%
Corners: 6
Fouls: 8

NORWICH
Shots: 7
On target: 4
Possession: 43%
Corners: 2
Fouls: 5

Was the result fair?

Absolutely. Boro were more emphatic than Norwich in the semi-finals, but today they were far from their best and Norwich never looked like losing after the two goals inside the opening quarter of an hour. It could have been different had Jelle Vossen's spectacular volley before the goals been an inch lower under the crossbar, but it wasn't to be and Boro did nowhere near enough to deserve anything from the game.

Boro's performance

Aitor Karanka's side had the best defence and best home record of anyone in the league during the regular season, but the former of those two stats was far from evident today. Little could have been done about Norwich's second, but the first gave the Canaries the impetus and it was a poor goal to concede.

Daniel Ayala - one of the league's best defenders throughout the season - allowed Jerome to nick the ball away and then keeper Dimitrios Konstantopoulos offered the striker the smallest of gaps at his near post which was found.

Much of the talk before the game was on whether Patrick Bamford would be fit to start, and the Championship Player of the Year was named in the XI. However, he was off-colour and perhaps should have been used as an impact substitute if Boro needed him.

Norwich's performance

What an astonishing year it's been for Alex Neil. The 33-year-old was managing a game in front of just 730 people at the start of the campaign while in charge of Hamilton Academical and it finished in front of over 85,000 at Wembley.

His side rose to the occasion and put in one of their best defensive displays of the season. Moments before Vossen's volley cracked the bar, Bradley Johnson did something similar and that was after a high-tempo start by the team in yellow and green. Their pressing was rewarded when Jerome won the ball and bore down on goal, while the second was a fabulous team move full of one-touch passing that was finished off by Redmond's arrow-like shot into the far corner.

Still, they had over 75 minutes of football remaining and it was how stubbornly they saw the result out that most impressed. The centre-back partnership of Russell Martin and Sebastien Bassong barely put a foot wrong, while in midfield Alexander Tettey, Jonny Howson and Wes Hoolahan overran their counterparts in red.

Sports Mole's man of the match

Cameron Jerome: A close call between Jerome and Bassong, but the former just edges it because of a tireless effort. He ran and ran and was rewarded for his early energy with the opener that swung the tie in Norwich's favour. He won the ball back in similar fashion for Norwich's first in the semi-final first leg against Ipswich Town was rightly give a standing ovation from the Norwich fans when taken off after 73 minutes.

Biggest gaffe

Boro's season was built on being resolute at the back, but Ayala was hugely at fault for allowing Jerome to steal the ball away in the 12th minute. Had the Spaniard cleared the ball earlier, the tie might have been very different.

Referee performance

Premier League regular Mike Dean was in charge and he had an excellent game. Boro were angry when he showed Vossen a yellow card for simulation, but it was the right call as the Belgian tumbled to the ground so easily.

What next?

Boro: The Teesside outfit will lick their wounds and try to achieve promotion back to the top flight in 2015-16.

Norwich: A well-deserved few weeks off before an eighth season in the top flight since the Premier League's inception.