Huddersfield boss Simon Grayson did not watch any of the 22 penalties which eventually saw his side secure promotion back to the Championship. The Terriers won a dramatic shoot-out 8-7 against Yorkshire rivals Sheffield United after a goalless 120 minutes at Wembley.
Grayson said:
Blades keeper Steve Simonsen, the last player left on the pitch to try his luck, fired over the crossbar moments after opposite number Alex Smithies had scored his side's 11th kick.
"When we put together the first five penalty takers we didn't expect it to go down to the goalkeepers to take them," said Grayson. "I expected them to save a couple but not to take the decisive ones. We missed the first three, so how we recovered from that I'll never know." Sheffield United counterpart Danny Wilson was despondent, the Blades having now lost all four of the play-off finals they have contested.
Wilson said: "I can't think of a worse way to lose. Steve had a terrific game. Who would have thought it would come down to the two keepers? He feels doubly disappointed because of his performance. These boys are devastated, all their hard work has been taken away, it's very difficult to console them." "I couldn't affect anything so I just sat down on the bench next to my chairman, I didn't watch any of them. I could tell by the crowd what was happening, basically we just had a laugh and a joke about what was going to happen. It's down to the players. Sometimes it's written in the stars, you get your bit of luck and we managed to do that."
