Dean Windass proclaimed himself the “proudest man in the world” after his son Josh scored a dramatic Wembley winner to clinch promotion for Sheffield Wednesday.
Windass junior headed home in stoppage time of extra time in the Sky Bet League One play-off final as the Owls snatched a 1-0 victory over 10-man neighbours Barnsley and a place in the Championship.
The goal had echoes of Dean Windass’ own play-off heroics, when he struck a stunning winner against Bristol City to send Hull into the Premier League in 2008.
“It’s absolutely incredible,” Dean told Sky Sports. “I said this morning he would get the winner.
“I can’t believe he actually headed it to be honest – because he loves his hair too much – but I’m the proudest man in the world. There are no words.”
The game had looked to be heading to a penalty shoot-out – just as the Championship and League Two finals had over the weekend – when Windass pounced.
“We played so bad, I didn’t think it was going to come,” Josh Windass said. “The standard of the game was awful.
“I was just trying to do something but nothing was coming. Luckily, last minute, it came off.”
UNBELIEVABLE 🤩 pic.twitter.com/KGbBE5XVzi
— Sheffield Wednesday (@swfc) May 29, 2023
The dramatic victory finally earned Wednesday reward for what has been a remarkable campaign.
Darren Moore’s side missed out on automatic promotion despite accumulating 96 points and they then needed to fight back to reach Wembley after losing the first leg of their play-off semi-final against Peterborough 4-0.
Josh Windass said: “We only had ourselves to blame. We messed it up.
“We wanted to win the league so coming here was, not a failure, but we knew we had to get it done.
“Luckily today we managed to – somehow – pull it off.”
