NAC Breda are back in the Eredivisie for the first time in five seasons after surviving a dramatic play-off final against Excelsior.

The second leg in Rotterdam looked to be a formality after NAC won the first match 6-2, with three goals in the last 15 minutes after Excelsior had been reduced to nine men.

But Excelsior stormed out of the blocks, taking a 3-0 lead by half-time with two goals from Irishman Troy Parrott and an own goal by NAC defender Boy Kemper.

Five minutes after half-time Parrott headed in his third goal and Excelsior’s fourth to make the aggregate score 6-6 and give the club that finished 16th in the Eredivisie hope of survival.

But that hope was snuffed out five minutes later, when NAC’s Casper Staring latched on to a loose ball on the edge of the penalty area and squeezed a shot inside the post for what proved to be the decisive goal.

NAC coach Jean-Paul van Gastel said: “I’m very proud as a born and bred native of Breda, coming from a NAC family, that I’ve managed to make this happen.”

Eighth place

A sickened Parrott could take no consolation from his hat-trick or the 4-1 win. “It’s a horrible feeling that nobody playing football wants to experience,” he told ESPN. “We tried and gave everything, but after the first game it just wasn’t enough.”

For NAC it was an unlikely twist at the end of a season that most fans had been keen to forget. The club sneaked into the play-offs after finishing eighth in the regular season.

But they overturned the odds with an 8-1 aggregate victory against Roda JC, a club that finished 19 points ahead of them, in the quarter-finals and then beat Emmen to set up the showdown against Excelsior.

The city of Breda will hold a reception to celebrate the team’s promotion at 4pm on Monday on the Grote Markt.