Sheffield Wednesday defeated 10-man Barnsley in the League One play-off final, with Josh Windass scoring the game-winning goal in the last seconds of extra time.

Windass headed past Harry Isted’s despairing dive to send the Owls up to the Championship at the expense of their South Yorkshire rivals in a third EFL play-off final in as many days.

It was brutal on the Tykes, who had been down a man since the 49th minute when Adam Phillips was sent out for a nasty challenge on Lee Gregory.

Isted saved wonderfully from Michael Smith and Barry Bannan in extra time, and Luca Connell missed a sitter for the Reds before Wednesday came up with the latest late winner.

Given their journey to this Wembley duel, it was maybe fitting for Wednesday to earn promotion in such spectacular fashion.

With a club-record 23-game unbeaten run, Darren Moore’s team appeared to be on course for automatic promotion.

However, that ended when the Tykes defeated them 4–2 in March, and they eventually finished third behind Plymouth and Ipswich with 96 points – the most points ever accumulated without being enough to automatically advance.

They then suffered a 4-0 defeat in the first leg of their play-off semi-final against Peterborough, thereby ending their promotion aspirations as fans booed the squad off the pitch.

With the support of a noisy Hillsborough, they upset Posh with the final kick of the 90-minute second leg to level the tie on aggregate before winning on penalties. It was the first time a team overcame a 2-0 deficit in a play-off semi-final.

For many stretches of Monday’s League One final, it appeared that might be the best the Owls would get. Windass dived in the final second of the game to powerfully head Gregory’s cross in, sending 44, 000 Wednesday fans into a frenzy while crushing Barnsley hearts.