Wycombe boss Gareth Ainsworth praised the 'fantastic job' Alex Neil has done at Sunderland - and says the Black Cats deserved their play-off final win and promotion to the Championship. Sunderland beat Wycombe 2-0 at Wembley thanks to goals from Elliot Embleton and Ross Stewart to climb out of League One, and dash Ainsworth's hopes of an instant return to the second tier following their relegation 12 months ago.
But Ainsworth said Sunderland were the better team on the day, adding: "I'm gutted for the boys, but we were beaten by the better team today who provided some moments of quality. I'm not going to sit here and say that it was unjust or anything like that.
"Sunderland definitely had the spoils early on, went 1-0 up, but then I thought the game was very close. There wasn't much in the way of chances, and probably we created the best chances of the game and there was a nervy spell for them at the start of the second half.
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"But the second goal really kills it off, and that was the sucker punch we took. We've played better than we did today, but unfortunately on the big occasion Sunderland were the better side.
"That happens sometimes. There have been times this season where we might have got away with that, but we have to take this one on the chin and regroup for next year.
"We'll be back here, and we'll be back here stronger and more resilient. We know how to win here, but unfortunately we just came up short.
"We keep producing, we keep upsetting the odds and the pundits. We've got the best squad I've ever had at Wycombe Wanderers without a shadow of a doubt, and we will build resilience from this and dust ourselves off.
"I'm so proud we amassed 83 points in League One, and if we can do that again next year I'm sure we'll be fine."
Of his opposite number Neil, Ainsworth said: "He's done a fantastic job, a really fantastic job. They're a huge club - probably the biggest outside the Premier League - and they deserve to be in the Championship."
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