The best day of Darren Ferguson’s football life

The Posh boss was ecstatic after his side scored three times in eight glorious second-half minutes to win the League One play-off final against Huddersfield at Old Trafford.

Ferguson celebrated his third promotion in four seasons at the club and can’t wait to prepare his ‘magnificent’ side for another stab at Championship football.

“People told me that winning promotion through the play-offs is the best way to go up, ” Ferguson admitted. “I wasn’t so sure about that, but now I’ve experienced it I have to agree.

“This is right up there with the best days of my career as a player and a manager. It was a fantastic occasion in a great stadium and I am a very proud man right now.

“The lads have been magnificent since I came back and especially in the last two games. There were times when we were on top in this match and times, particularly at the start of the second half, when they dominated.

“It was absolutely crucial that we didn’t concede as they had a right go at us for half an hour, but they didn’t have any clear chances and the last 15 minutes were incredible from our point of view.

“It was a great delivery by Grant McCann for the first goal and then to score so quickly straight away was a killer for them.

“I do feel sorry for Lee Clark and his staff as Huddersfield have been on a terrific run and they are clearly a very good side, but my boys deserve this.

“We try and play football the right way, but we had to dig in to get this result and that was very pleasing. I knew they would flood midfield and tell their centre-backs to play deep because they were scared of Mackail-Smith, but we stuck at it and we have had an amazing day together.”

Ferguson phoned his father Sir Alex, who did not attend the match, soon after the final whistle. It had been a big weekend for the family as Sir Alex’s Manchester United played and lost to Barcelona in the Champions League Final at Wembley the night before Posh’s big day.

“My dad was thrilled for me, ” Ferguson admitted. “I wanted to win to put a smile back on his face after last night.

“It was a big weekend for the whole family. Obviously we wanted two wins, but one was better than none.

“It’s pretty amazing to think what has happened to me over the last six months. When I left Preston I could have kept out of the way for a while, but I wanted to repair my reputation as quickly as possible so I thank the chairman for giving me the opportunity.

“The chairman showed a lot of bottle to come back and get me. That’s not me being arrogant and I would not have come back if I had not been confident we could get back to the Championship straight away.

“And to be fair to the chairman he has backed the club financially again when it would have been easy for him to have walked away at the end of last season.”

Ferguson and the chairman will have a meeting about next season ahead of tomorrow’s victory parade round the city when transfer targets will be top of the agenda.

Birmingham, QPR and Millwall have joined Norwich and Celtic in revealing an interest in Posh top scorer Craig Mackail-Smith who is expected to leave London Road.