Sunderland achieved promotion to the Championship after four seasons away at the weekend after overcoming Wycombe Wanderers 2-0 at Wembley.
Goals from Elliott Embleton and Ross Stewart gave the Black Cats a convincing victory which led them to lift the trophy.
Since coming to the club in February, Alex Neil has done a brilliant job with Sunderland and his decision to start Embleton over Jack Clarke was clearly a good one.
However, the work has just begun for Sunderland who will now be looking to strengthen their side in summer to ensure they are able to compete in the Championship next season.
Former Sunderland player Kevin Kilbane described Saturday as 'special' as he told Sky Sports News (via the Chronicle): Today was very special.
"I think that Sunderland supporters, you could see what it meant to them. I think the players more so now are really in touch with those supporters. Great scenes, incredible scenes. The hairs on the back of your neck really stood up with that, it was a great moment for Sunderland."
Kilbane spent five seasons with the Black Cats at the start of the century, four of which were in the Premier League and he was able to rack up 113 appearances for the club.
Knowing what it's like to be at Sunderland in the top flight, the former player set Alex Neil's side a challenge as he said: "It seems like such a long time, four years out of the Championship, five years since Sunderland were a Premier League club. That's where the majority of fans see themselves, as a Premier League club. The stature of the club probably warrants that but you get nothing for free these days and Sunderland need to work hard to get back to that state, to get back to that level where they were at.
"[Neil] has done such an incredible job. Sunderland have had such a turnover of managers over the last 10-15 years and it's just been the right fit at the right time. He had to make an impact very quickly coming in after Lee Johnson and he did that. He's gone to Sunderland and he has been the right fit and full credit to Alex Neil for getting Sunderland back in the Championship and he can move on from here now.
"Sunderland have been through so much pain and hurt particularly over the last five years. Every year they've been in League One you've expected them to make a huge automatic promotion push. I'm sure there'll be nobody taking anything for granted but the stature of the club...they are born to compete and you expect Sunderland to be right at the top of the Championship.
"It's not going to be easy. There is a lot of recruitment that needs to go in, a lot of involvement from a lot of people that needs to go in. I expect Sunderland to be certainly top-half come Christmas time and if they are there, I expect them to be making a play-off push and hopefully to be somewhere around top half top six position."
The Verdict:
There is no questioning how well Alex Neil has done since arriving in Sunderland and fans will be hoping he can have the same impact next season.
Of course Sunderland will be looking to compete in the Championship and push up the table but considering how hard they found it to get out of League One, they will need to prepare themselves for the same tough test in the league above.
The key thing next season will be making sure the team is sufficiently added to and looking to establish themselves in the league.
However, you would expect Alex Neil's personal targets to very similar to those set by Kilbane so should things go well for them, we could see the Black Cats at the top end of the table.