If you can keep grinding out results while all around you are tripping up, you’ll be in the Barclays Premier League, my son. Durable and determined when it mattered most, Stoke City garnered ten points from their final four games and, as their rivals faltered, it was enough. They could even have afforded to lose this one yesterday because Hull City failed to beat Ipswich Town. Since promotion is worth about £60 million, Stoke can now afford plenty.

In the top flight for the first time since 1985, there is welcome novelty value in Stoke’s rise, but the struggles of promoted clubs in recent years ensure that any club of modest size and means can expect to be greeted with raised eyebrows as well as open arms.

Stoke are not the wizards of dribble of ye olden Stanley Matthews days. Under Tony Pulis, the magic formula is very modern: fitness, strength and organisation. The question of whether they will fare any better in the top flight than Derby County is inevitable, but a better comparison is to Watford, relegated the previous year. Adrian Boothroyd’s side prioritised grit above guile and power above panache. Enthusiasm was not adequate compensation for their deficiencies and they swiftly returned to the Coca-Cola Championship. Pulis knows shrewd investments are required this summer if Stoke are to evade the same fate.

The manager preferred to reflect rather than look forward. “Two years ago, I was in Portugal on a beach having just kept Plymouth up, and really enjoying it at Plymouth,” he said. “Peter Coates, the chairman, wanted me to come back because he wanted to have a bit of a go at it. I said, ‘Last time I was manager here, I got criticised at times and had a bottom-three budget.’ There was no way I was coming back unless he was going to give me the opportunity to compete.

“He said, ‘I’ll guarantee you’ll compete’ and he’s kept his word and I’m delighted for him. When someone like that rings you up and asks, ‘Have you got the balls to do it?’, you can’t do anything but accept.”

In contrast, Ian Holloway has suffered for his ambition. Holloway quit Plymouth Argyle last November because he thought Leicester City offered him a better chance of reaching the Premier League. Now they are in the third tier for the first time.

Holloway is Leicester’s third permanent manager of the season and the club are expected to make yet another change soon. Milan Mandaric, the Leicester owner, was not present yesterday. He is unlikely to forgive Holloway for this failure, especially after giving him more than £2 million to spend in the January window.

There were no inspired soundbites or eccentric metaphors from football’s most quotable manager yesterday. This was Holloway hoarse and hollowed-out. “I can’t put into words how I am feeling,” he said. As for his future, he said: “That’s out of my hands. I feel I’ve let down my family and the Leicester City people. I accept full responsibility. Everything I’ve touched here hasn’t worked. I don’t make excuses; we haven’t been good enough.”

Leicester needed to equal Southampton’s result to stay up. Stoke had much the better of a reserved first half, with Leicester unsure how ambitious to be. The home side almost took the lead after 56 minutes, but Paul Henderson produced a superb save to deny Ricardo Fuller from five yards out.

Then goals started to flow elsewhere and the news infected the atmosphere, providing context and turning tension into excitement, then dread, for Leicester. Southampton had scored – they needed to. Not that Stoke fans were happy at the news, fearing that their opponents would redouble their efforts. Would Stoke be champions? Would they finish third?

On the hour, Leicester entered a 20-minute purple patch. Gareth McAuley’s looping header hit the post and was scrambled away. With 15 minutes left, a big decision for the referee, Mike Dean: Richard Stearman was tripped on the edge of the area. The Leicester player was judged to have been fouled just outside the box and Iain Hume’s free kick went over.

In the 81st minute, Carlo Nash, the Stoke goalkeeper, saved well from Hume’s low shot, then brilliantly from Stearman’s header from the resulting corner. Leicester were spent; Stoke prepared to party. The posse of ticketless fans on the hill outside a corner of the stadium became a big gathering, supporters dancing on the muddy bank at the news that Hull were losing to Ipswich.

With ten minutes left, men placed a Football League platform against one of the walls of the Boothen End. “Champions 2008”, it read in Stoke white-and-red, but since West Bromwich Albion were beating Queens Park Rangers, it seemed unlikely ever to be assembled on the pitch.

Holloway accepted, too late, that a point was not enough and sent men forward. Into injury time, and the final whistle from Portman Road blew into portable radios and beep-beeped into mobile phones: Hull had lost, Stoke were up. Joy exploded: fans could not control their emotions and police and stewards could not control the fans. Hundreds spilt on to the pitch, pausing Leicester in purgatory.

After a delay of several minutes while the supporters returned to the perimeter, the game resumed. Quickly, Dean ended the contest. Cue the invasion, part two. Ecstasy just as the horrible truth hit the away end: Southampton had won, Leicester were down. A man dressed as Snoopy did jigs on the roof of the home dugout as someone dressed like a priest conducted a chorus of the fans’ theme song, Delilah, loud enough to shatter all the pots in the nearby factories.

As the locals rocked deliriously, Leicester’s followers stood and stared or shuffled out, numb and wondering, why, why, why?

Stoke City (4-4-2): C Nash – L Cort, A Wilkinson (sub: L Buxton, 22min), R Shawcross, C Dickinson – L Lawrence (sub: D Pugh, 90), R Delap, G Whelan, R Cresswell – R Fuller, M Sidibe (sub: F Ameobi, 90). Substitutes not used: S Simonsen, S Pearson. Booked: Dickinson.

Leicester City (4-3-3): P Henderson – R Stearman, G McAuley, B N’Gotty, J Mattock – H Worley (sub: M Fryatt, 85), D Bell (sub: A Chambers, 90), M Oakley – I Hume, S Howard, B Hayles. Substitutes not used: J Clapham, J Wesolowski, R Douglas. Booked: Howard, McAuley.

Referee: M Dean
Attendance: 26,609