It was a long haul to glory. After 48 matches in the Championship and play-offs Swansea had to resist a Reading recovery from 3-0 down at half-time in the 49th. They held on for a time after Brian McDermott's side had scored twice before striking again to secure a 4-2 win. They did so, above all, because of a hat-trick from Scott Sinclair, who was once a prodigy at Chelsea.
The second of the penalties he converted ended Reading's hope 10 minutes from full-time. Andy Griffin needlessly felled Fabio Borini and Sinclair once more converted the penalty with a shot to the goalkeeper's right. Brendan Rogers' side will be the first Welsh club in the top flight since the inception of the Premier League.
Reading were generally incapable initially of resisting pressure and the taxing encounter anticipated did not break loose until the second-half. There was logic to the outcome since Swansea had prevailed in both meetings with Reading in the regular season, but the 1-0 margins had suggested strain and tension of a different sort at Wembley.
Swansea looked for a time as if they could spend the whole occasion reeling off goals. The Reading centre-half Zurab Khizanishvilli was in such distress that he could have had a red card instead of a single caution. It was the Georgian who brought down Nathan Dyer in the 21st minute and Sinclair sent the goalkeeper Adam Federici the wrong way with the penalty.
The scorer had a further goal a minute later, knocking the ball home after Federici was able only to tip a low cross from Stephen Dobbie into his path. In the 45th minute, Khizanishvilli floundered once more by diverting the ball so that Dobbie could put his name on the scoresheet.
Reading were in such disarray then that it did not seem so surprising that the referee Phil Dowd should send the assistant manager, Nigel Gibbs, and the substitute Jay Tabb to the stands at the interval following his encounter with them in the tunnel.
The passion was put to better use by an eager and suddenly incisive Reading following the interval. Joe Allen was credited with an own goal after Noel Hunt's header from a Jobi McAnuff corner deflected off the midfielder and past Dorus De Vries at the near post. A further corner would see Matt Mills score in the 57th minute, but nothing was to eclipse Sinclair and Swansea.
