As you can imagine, this really isn’t the blog I wanted to write this week. I was absolutely devastated by what happened on Wednesday. It’s a horrible way to lose and it brought back feelings of injustice I’d experienced in the past.

Those memories that stick in your throat from penalties awarded to Blackburn and Swindon in previous play-off finals dominate your thoughts and it’s hard to get past what happened and move on.

I know that some people will blame Yann Kermorgant for the way he took his penalty, but you win as a team and lose as a team and I’m not going to give him or Waggy any stick for missing their kicks.

I’ll be honest though, my first reaction when Yann missed was that you don’t take the p**s with such an important penalty. Richie Wellens did something similar against Middlesbrough the other week, but that was on the last day of the season with nothing really to play for and City already a goal to the good.

There’s a time and a place for those things. If Kermorgant had scored he would’ve gone down in Foxes folklore as a hero, but there’s not much margin for error with a chipped effort like that. As he approached the ball I was saying just smash it… I wish he had done.

We’ve had our fair share of luck in penalty shootouts over the years and it brought back all those memories too. Maybe we used up all our luck with penos in the 90’s, who knows? When it goes the distance like that it comes down to such slim margins. We were just minutes away from Wembley and the chance to play in the Premier League.

I sat watching Sky Sports News on Thursday morning and they were showing the Cardiff fans celebrating and a load of them queuing for their tickets for the final. It just makes you think that it could’ve been us. Just imagine how much the City would be buzzing at the moment with all the excitement a play-off final brings.

It was a great effort from the lads and there were some outstanding performances all over the pitch. Richie Wellens ran himself into the ground even after injury, Jack Hobbs was solid in defence again and Steve Howard had a massive game up front. He was winning everything in the air and playing some great passes to link things up.

After the first 20 minutes I genuinely feared for the worst as Cardiff were well on top and creating chances. The tie could’ve been over even before Chopra scored the opener. It was a disappointing one to concede from a defensive point of view, but the lads didn’t dwell on it and showed great character to come straight back and score through Matty Fryatt. When we levelled the tie through Hudson’s own goal I was buzzing and I couldn’t quite believe that we went in 2-1 up at half-time.

After Andy King put us ahead in the second half I couldn’t see Cardiff scoring and I expected us to get a fourth and finish off the tie. They didn’t really have any clear cut chances apart from the penalty. Chopra was definitely offside but Bruce didn’t need to foul him as he still had a lot to do to beat Weale and was going away from goal if anything.

Stevie Howard continued to impress and I was expecting to see that half-volley he smashed fly into the top corner with the form he was on. He was so dominant in the air that I just wanted the lads to hoof the ball up to him and Kermorgant at every opportunity and keep the pressure up. Extra-time was a tense affair and you just knew it was going to penalties.

I really felt for Nigel Pearson and in his interview after the game you could see just how hard the defeat had hit him. Nigel isn’t one for showing much emotion in front of the media but it was so obvious to everybody watching that he was devastated, not so much for himself, but for his players and the fans.

The players will be absolutely gutted and the disappointment will follow them around all summer. After those play-off final defeats to Swindon and Blackburn I just couldn’t shake that feeling and couldn’t wait to get back into training and put things right. They’ll all be off on their holidays in the next few days but I’m sure the way they lost Wednesday’s game and the way they felt in the dressing room afterwards will stay with them over the summer months.

Of course it’s disappointing to miss out, but when the dust settles, Nigel and his staff will be delighted with the efforts and achievements of the players this season. The manager is the sort of man to turn a negative into a positive and I’m sure everybody will redouble their efforts and aim to replicate and improve on this campaign.

We’ve got to look to next season now and there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful. We’ve got a young squad with bags of potential and the experience of playing in two such big games will make them all better players. Jack Hobbs has been our best player this season and you could see that even he grew in stature over the two legs. You could tell from his body language that he flourished with the extra responsibility that captaincy brought and I can see him being skipper on a more regular basis next season.

It’s going to be a massive season for the club. There’s not much to fear coming down from the Premier League in my opinion, but there will still be some big clubs in the division, with the return of Leeds and Norwich, and Middlesbrough and Sheffield United still knocking around.

The first and most important thing the club needs to sort out is Nigel Pearson’s future. We simply cannot afford to lose him. I’d urge the board to support him as much as possible over the summer. We’ve got the basis of a very good team but we certainly need to strengthen in a few areas. If Nigel is able to do that then there’s no reason why we can’t challenge for automatic promotion. Keep the faith.

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