Lee Bowyer claimed his players are ‘heroes’ after they secured promotion at Wembley.

Patrick Bauer’s injury-time strike gave Charlton a 2-1 win over Sunderland to assure Championship next season.

The last-minute effort completed a famous comeback win after going behind to and early and bizarre Naby Sarr own goal as goalkeeper Dillon Phillips failed to control a back pass.

Ben Purrington drew the sides level before the break before the now out of contract Bauer stabbed home from close range to seal a memorable win.

“Nothing is straight forward with us,” a beaming Bowyer said.

“Crazy game wasn’t it?

“The mistake early on, I’ve not seen that before, especially in the final.

“What it shows is the character of the players that we’ve put together.

“I’ve been saying it all season we’ve got a unique group of players, and they could’ve easily gone under there, but they didn’t they were brave.

“To come from behind against a good Sunderland side they’ve had to pull together.

“They’re heroes to a lot of people now, and they deserve it.”

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Bowyer, who started his career with Charlton, couldn’t hide his emotions in leading his side back to the division they were relegated from in 2016.

“This football club gave me a change as a kid, coming through the youths, and working my way into the first team.

“To come back to the football club that gave me my chance in playing, and then to manage them and to walk them out at Wembley is so special to me.

“To get the result we did, after being through tough times, and to see everyone go on this journey together, come together, and buy into what I was asking for and telling them, what we’ve done is something special.”

On Dillon - 'They all made mistakes'

Speaking of Phillips’s fifth minute error, Bowyer remained philosophical.

“It’s a mistake, the only thing is if you’re a goalie and you make a mistake, it’s a goal.

“All the players made a mistake today, just Dillon’s went in the back of the net.

“It’ll make him stronger, there was nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.

“The young lads, they’ve had to become men today.”