Sheffield Wednesday boss Darren Moore called the ‘best moment’ of his managerial career when his side closed a four-goal deficit to win 5-1 after extra time at Hillsborough and beat Peterborough 5-3 on penalties .
The hosts started with lightning speed and scored two goals in the first 25 minutes thanks to the penalties of Michael Smith and Lee Gregory.
Reece James made it three and with 20 minutes to go brought the hosts one of Peterborough’s aggregate advantages and they sent the game into extra time with a final kick in regulation time when Liam Palmer pushed home from close range.
Gregory’s own goal once again gave Peterborough the lead, but on Wednesday Callum Paterson again scored a brilliant equalizer to take the game to a penalty. The Owls’ date at Wembley was set when Jack Hunt converted the final penalty from Dan Butler’s shot. crossbar with the only miss in the shootout.
Moore insists his comeback win will be the best of his managerial career, but wants to go one step further with a promotion.
He said: “For me, this is my best moment in terms of management.
“To witness this and have him come here, I couldn’t wish for him to be in a better place, under the lights here in Hillsborough.
“Tonight is going to be special, but as I keep telling them, we have one more game to go. We are enjoying tonight and then we will focus on playing at Wembley.
“We had a rallying call for the fans to come out and speak at full strength, and tonight they were. When the boys had cramps tonight, the fans cheered for them. The guys showed a great character.”
Moore explained how his team went to “injury locker” to get a result, as several players were recovering from muscle injuries and thought his team handled penalties well when the pressure was on.
He said, “They went to break the locker tonight, boys.
“They had to go to the casualty locker to do it tonight, nothing less was needed to get the job done.
“We worked on them (penalties) in training. We were ready for it and I was very confident in each of them.
“Thank you guys for the way they made it, Peterborough pushed us to the end and for us to win the game it had to come down to this moment.”
Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson has said his team’s line-up has not changed since their 4-0 win in the first leg at Weston Homes.
He said: “I can’t be criticized for choosing the same team that won two such games.
“In terms of team selection, we wanted the ball to be of high quality. But when you make decisions like we do and give them momentum, it can be hard to get it back, and I’ve seen much better teams than us lose it mentally.
“I thought we had just done enough, but unfortunately stoppage time and the last kick of the ball took him into extra time.”
Ferguson dismissed questions about whether he would be in Peterborough’s dugout next season after returning to the club in January.
He continued, “Today is not the time for this question.
“How can I answer this? No negotiations, no offers to stay. I was invited to work, and the conversation will take place after the end of this season.