Sheffield Wednesday boss Darren Moore hailed the “best moment” of his managerial career as his side overturned a four-goal deficit to win 5-1 after extra time at Hillsborough and earn a 5-3 win on penalties against Peterborough.
The hosts made a lightning start and got two goals in the first 25 minutes courtesy of Michael Smith penalty and Lee Gregory.
Reece James made it three and pulled the hosts to within one of Peterborough’s aggregate lead with 20 minutes to go, and they sent the game to extra time with the last kick of normal time when Liam Palmer nudged home from close range.
A Gregory own goal gave Peterborough the initiative once again in the tie but Wednesday remarkably equalised once again through Callum Paterson, taking the game to penalties – The Owls’ date at Wembley was booked when Jack Hunt converted with the last spot kick after Dan Butler hit the crossbar with the only miss of the shootout.
Moore insists the comeback victory will go down as the best in his managerial career but wants to go one step further by achieving promotion.
He said: “For me, it’s my best moment in terms of management.
“To witness it and for it to come here, I couldn’t have wished for it to be at a better a place, under the lights here at Hillsborough.
“Tonight will be special, but as I keep saying to them, we have got another game to go. We enjoy tonight and then focus on the Wembley game now.
“We had a rallying call to get the fans to come out and be in full voice and they were tonight. When the boys were cramping up tonight, the fans kept them going. The boys showed great character.”
Moore explained how his team went to the “hurt locker” to get the result as several players received treatment for muscle injuries and thought his side took the penalties well, when the pressure was on.
He said: “They’ve gone to hurt locker tonight, the boys.
“They had to go to the hurt locker to get this one done tonight, it wasn’t going to take anything less than that to get the job done.
“We worked on them (penalties) in training. We were ready for it and I was super confident with every single one of them.
“Credit to the boys in terms of how they went about it, Peterborough have pushed us all the way and for us to win the game it had to come down to a moment like that.”
Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson defended that his team selection went unchanged after their 4-0 win in the first leg at the Weston Homes Stadium.
He said: “I cannot be criticised for picking the same team that have won two games like that.
“In terms of team selection, we wanted the quality on the ball. But when you make decisions like we did and give them momentum, it can be hard to get it back and I’ve seen far better teams than us lose it psychologically.
“I thought we’d just done enough but unfortunately the added time and last kick of the ball has put it into extra-time.”
Ferguson dismissed questions on whether he will be in the Peterborough dugout next season after he returned to the club in January.
He continued: “Tonight is not the night for that question.
“How can I answer that? There has been no talks, no offer to stay. I was brought in to do a job and the chat will take place after this season has finished.”
