Veteran striker Neil Shipperley netted the 62nd minute winner that led Crystal Palace to the promised land of the Premiership on an immensely disappointing afternoon for an under performing West Ham side.
Ironically, the Hammers' draw at Wigan in their final game of the season had let the South Londoners into the play-offs by the back door in the first place, and the Palace skipper's strike left his manager – ex-Upton Park goalgetter Iain Dowie – simply glad all over.
But it was a totally different story for former Selhurst Park midfielder Alan Pardew as, reflecting on an afternoon of burst bubbles, he set about surveying the huge cost of missing out upon an instant return to the top-flight.
After having impressively seen off Ipswich Town in the semi-finals, West Ham were able to field an unchanged side whilst Palace made just one switch as Shaun Derry came in for Julian Gray, who was suspended following his dismissal in the scintillating sudden death penalty shootout win at Sunderland.
And as both sides went in pursuit of that lucrative Premiership prize, Dowie would have been pleased with the way his men set about his former club during the opening stages as Michael Hughes, Danny Butterfield and 31-goal Andy Johnson each threatened.
In the other dugout, Pardew had to wait until midway through the first half to see his own team go close, but when Michael Carrick released Bobby Zamora an exposed Nico Vaesen saved his low 12-yarder with his outstretched legs.
Still Palace had the upper hand, though, and shortly afterwards the alert Stephen Bywater was forced to save Johnson's clever low shot on the turn, while on 36 minutes the relieved Hammers' keeper again did well to parry Michael Hughes' close-range shot skywards before seeing Tomas Repka hook the looping ball off the line to keep it goalless at the break.
West Ham, looking a shadow of the side that had fought their way to the final, were equally edgy after the break, too, but on the hour they almost broke the deadlock when Steve Lomas unleashed a rising 20-yard volley which Vaesen acrobatically steered away from under his right-hand angle.
Seconds later, however, Bywater was far less assured and when he could only push out Johnson's seemingly innocuous low, angled 20-yarder, Shipperley was on hand to hungrily gobble up the scraps and roll the loose ball over the line to claim the easiest yet most priceless goal of his career.
Pardew responded with a double substitution that saw Nigel Reo-Coker and Brian Deane replace 26-goal Marlon Harewood and Zamora and shortly afterwards his third striker, 14-goal David Connolly, was curiously replaced by Don Hutchison.
But apart from a debatable shout for a penalty following a late challenge by Mikele Leigertwood on Carrick, West Ham barely looked like clawing their way back into the contest.
As Palace prepared to celebrate their deserved victory, the Eastenders – with another season in the Football League looming – allowed their frustration to boil over in a niggly finale that saw Graham Poll take the afternoon's card count to seven.