Goals from Keith Fahey and Kevin Phillips saw the Blues beat Reading 2-1 at the Madejski Stadium to clinch second place in the Coca-Cola Championship.

But McLeish's future overshadowed the celebrations for the Blues as a host of reports claimed he was ready to end his tenure at the club.

He said: "This is not the time to talk about my future, it's a time for celebration.

"I have heard that there is speculation about my future but it is wide of the mark to say I will walk away.

"You will have to ask the board but as far as I know I'll be here next season."

Blues thoroughly deserved the win as Damien Johnson and skipper Lee Carsley bossed the midfield.

They went ahead when Marcus Hahnemann failed to gather Fahey's low shot before Phillips made it 2-0 on the hour.

Substitute Marek Matejovsky hammered in a reply for Reading but they were unable to find an equaliser as the Blues celebrated a promotion they should have wrapped up weeks ago.

McLeish said: "It's up there with the greatest achievements I've had in the game.

"It's massive financially to get into the Premier League and there are a lot of big teams in this league who can't get up there.

"It was massive pressure on us after blowing it against Preston.

"It was as hard a season as I have ever endured and there was the burden of promotion on us all season."

Reading boss Steve Coppell admitted afterwards that he never thought his side would seal promotion.

The Royals have now gone eight games at the Madejski without a win - a run stretching back to a victory over champions Wolves at the end of January - and have limped into the play-offs where they will face Burnley.

Coppell said: "I would describe myself as neutrally disappointed as before the game I wasn't expecting to go up.

"I'm not being wise after the event but I never thought we would go up this afternoon.

"It didn't turn out the way I thought, I must admit, but you look at the table and we're fourth.

"Where you finish is no accident. "If we focused on all our missed opportunities this season we'd be crying into our beer for a long, long time.

"Over the last third of the season we've not been good enough and the table shows that.

"We gave away two terrible goals and you can't afford to do that.

"We only responded after going two down but that was too little too late."