English League Championship: Wigan Athletic were promoted to the Premier League for the first time yesterday after a 3-1 win over play-off contenders Reading at the JJB Stadium. First-half goals by Lee McCulloch and Jason Roberts and a late strike from Nathan Ellington secured second place in the English Championship for Wigan with 87 points ahead of Ipswich Town.

The club, who were only elected to the Football League in 1978, are bank-rolled by Dave Whelan, who broke his leg playing for Blackburn Rovers in the 1960 FA Cup final before becoming the multi-millionaire head of the JJB sports retail empire.

Wigan manager Paul Jewell, who steered unfashionable Bradford City into the Premier League in 1999, said: "I'm so pleased for the players. Everyone goes on about how much we have spent but the biggest compliment I can pay them (the players) is that they are similar to the Bradford players I had," he said.

Champions Sunderland won 1-0 at home to Stoke City before being presented with the championship trophy in front of a noisy crowd of more than 47,000 at the Stadium of Light. Ipswich finished third after a 1-1 draw at Brighton and Hove Albion to finish with 85 points and will face West Ham in the play-offs after the east London side won 2-1 at Watford.

Derby County also clinched a play-off spot with a 3-1 home win over Preston North End, who they will meet in the play-offs, that moved them above the visitors into fourth place. Derby have 76 points ahead of Preston with 75 and West Ham on 73. Reading finished with 70 to miss out again.

The first legs of the play-off semi-finals are on May 14th and 15th with the return games on May 18th and 19th. The final is at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, on May 30th.

At the bottom of the table Gillingham were demoted after they drew 2-2 at already-relegated Nottingham Forest.Brighton escaped the drop by a point after their draw at home to Ipswich.