The achievement, in all of its triumph, now truly belongs to Malky Mackay.

As a solid and resolute centre-back, he played for three different clubs that achieved promotion to the English Premier League in three consecutive seasons, but it was only with the latter side, Watford, that Mackay finally played in the top flight. After helping Norwich City then West Ham United out of the Championship, both clubs released him. Now, as manager of Cardiff City, Mackay is the key figure of a team that will soon be competing in the Premier League.

The decisive moment was tense, coming at the end of a 0-0 draw with Charlton Athletic on Tuesday night. While Craig Bellamy sank to his knees, almost in tears, and fans streamed on to the pitch, Mackay shared a quiet word with the opposition manager and his former teammate, Chris Powell. He is seldom flustered or overcome and his managerial career has been an exercise in steady progress.

Cardiff turned to him in the midst of their ongoing psychological turmoil with the business of trying to climb out of the Championship. Several promotion campaigns had fallen short, with the club having failed in two consecutive play-offs when Mackay took over in June 2011. The same fate befell the side last season – their ninth in the Championship – while defeats in the 2008 FA Cup final and the 2012 League Cup final encompassed the notion of a club whose resolve collapsed at the vital moment. There can be no inferiority complex now.

"There are a lot of smiley happy faces and it's going to be a long night in Cardiff," Mackay said after the Charlton game. "There are a lot of people here who have gone through a lot of hard times and this is for them. It's a huge challenge. We are going into one of the best leagues in the world. We are going to plan properly; that has started already and we will now put that in action.

"We will make sure the structure we have put in place keeps striding forward and keeps adding because change is constant. We have been doing that for two years, changing and adapting and pushing the envelope, and we will continue doing that to make sure we give ourselves the best chance."

The pragmatism and level-headedness of the manager have often been vital commodities. When Vincent Tan decided to rebrand the club at the beginning of this season, the home colours were changed from blue to red and a dragon was incorporated into the club badge. There might have been an insurrection among fans, although Tan's willingness to take on the club when its debt is more than £83m and the accounts to May 2012 recorded a loss of £13.6m, was crucial to Cardiff's very existence.

The owner was at Cardiff City Stadium last Tuesday night and was heralded by the supporters as he took to the pitch. Some fans continue to gripe about the change to the club's history, but the emotion of returning to the top-flight after an absence of 53 years was enough to wash away any grievances. Cardiff are, in a sense, a contemporary club: laden with debt, owned by an overseas multi-millionaire who is prepared to bankroll an unsustainable business model, and about to benefit from the latest Premier League TV deal, which will deliver a minimum of £60m next season.

"We need to strategise well and we'd like to spend some money, maybe £20m to £25m," said Tan. "Others have spent a big amount of money and don't do well, so we will try to spend smartly." It falls to Mackay to steer a prudent course through the coming months, while acutely aware of the fate of Brian McDermott and Nigel Adkins, who were both sacked during their first campaigns in the Premier League after taking Reading and Southampton, respectively, out of the Championship last season. "I'm going into it with my eyes wide open," Mackay said yesterday.

He has always been an intelligent and ambitious figure and those qualities have moulded to the particular demands of management. Mackay's teams tend to be composed on the ball but there is no hesitation in adapting styles when the occasion demands. Mackay joins Sir Alex Ferguson, David Moyes, Paul Lambert and Steve Clarke in the top flight, and he will not feel intimidated by the challenges he faces next season.

"Malky's a great worker in terms of the game, taking it off his father [the Queens Park director, Malky senior]," said Tom Boyd, who played with Mackay at Celtic. "He was a no-nonsense type of centre-back, he'd go out and win the ball. Knowing how much he thought of the game, I certainly thought he'd go on to become a manager. He had intelligence about him. I'd love to see him at Celtic once Neil [Lennon] decides to hang up his boots or go somewhere else."