English football club Newcastle United took the second Premier League promotion spot after Monday night’s 4-1 victory over Preston North End.
The Magpies victory was made possible by goals from Ayoze Perez, Christian Atsu and Matt Ritchie, with the last two coming after Preston’s Paul Gallagher was sent off after handling a ball at his side’s goalmouth.
With the first automatic promotion spot having already been taken by Brighton & Hove Albion, Newcastle needed to ensure no further setbacks to avoid the tricky play-offs.
With their promotion back to the Premier League, The Magpies have become only the second side in seven years to get promotion back to the top tier at the first attempt.
While it was widely expected that former Liverpool and Real Madrid manager Rafael Benitez would lead the lads back to the Premier League, not many people thought they would get real competition considering the amount of talent that the club managed to keep a hold of.
The promotion also means more African footballers will grace the Premier League next season if those at Newcastle remain at the club.
Such players as Monday’s goal scorer Christian Atsu Ghana), Chancel Mbemba Mangulu (DR Congo) and Mohamed Diamé (Senegal) will have a chance to face top Premier League players in the next season.
The third PL promotion slot will be a battle of the teams that finish from position three to position six.
