Proud Sheffield Wednesday boss lauds a historical performance from his side against Peterborough United

Michael Smith of Sheffield Wednesday scores the opening goal from the penalty spot past Will Norris of Peterborough United. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.com.

Proud Sheffield Wednesday manager Darren Moore insisted he’d never seen anything like it after his side came back from the dead to pip Peterborough United on penalties in their League One play-off semi-final.

To be fair no-one had seen anything like it. No team had ever overcome a three-goal deficit in EFL play-off history and Wednesday started this game four goals adrift.

They finished it with a 5-1 win in front of a packed and passionate Hillsborough before booking a date in the play-off final at Wembley later this month with a 5-3 penalty shootout win.

Wednesday had been seconds from elimination when they levelled the scores on aggregate at the end of regulation time. They also recovered after failing behind in extra time.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Moore admitted. “But we worked for it, we planned for it.

“We spoke about the percentages of balls we needed forward. When the teamsheet came in and we saw they had picked the same 11, we’d had a good look at them in the first leg and we knew their capabilities.

“We attacked their two full-backs and got a lot of joy from that, but we kept the pressure on throughout

“To score that goal at the end having kept going, that was the magical moment for me. Once we got to the penalties we’d prepared for them all week and it turned out well for us.

"We knew at half-time we were on course for it. It's not quite sunk in yet. We've witnessed a historical game.

“I’ve been out in the community. Everybody I saw, every Wednesdayite was phenomenal. This morning I went for a walk on my own and a gentleman in a car shouted at the top of his voice, ‘We can do this, Wednesday.’

“I suppose it's not really dawned on me yet tonight. I'll probably re-watch the game tomorrow night back and reflect on it then.

“We needed the fans tonight. If we were ever going to get it done we needed them. This has been achieved by everybody.

“The emotions are high as you can imagine. It's important everybody enjoys tonight.

“We had strong belief, we really did. I showed them comebacks from ridiculous scorelines from games years ago. That's why we were prepared.

"We've got one more game to go now.”