ANDY ROBERTSON, the Scotland international, feared he’d blown his Hull City side’s chance of promotion to the Premier League when he missed a sitter in the SkyBet Championship play-off at Wembley.
The left-back put his shot over from close range, and with the entire goal to aim at, when the match with Sheffield Wednesday was still 0-0. Fortunately for him, team-mate Mo Diame did score soon afterwards and that turned out to be the game’s only goal.
Robertson will now play Premier League football next season and while his team deserved to win, that missed chance would have haunted him had his day gone badly.
He said: “Should I have scored? Yeah, undoubtedly. If we get beat I probably wasn’t walking out of the dressing room without at least a black eye but luckily we won and hopefully it will be forgotten about. But I should have scored.
“Moses Odubajo put in an unbelievable ball and I’ve probably ran on to it too quickly. I should have composed myself but it’s hard. I shouldn’t be putting it over the bar like that.
"When Diame’s shot went in, it was a feeling of relief. The longer it went on, people were thinking it’s not our day. Wednesday didn’t really have a chance and then luckily Diame’s flew in.
“If you start thinking about the miss then your performance is affected. After the miss I probably had my best 20 minutes of the game. Defensively I was solid and then the goal went in and it was all about sitting back and stopping the crosses.”
Robertson’s overwhelming feeling was one of joy after a season out of the Premier League.
He said: “It is unbelievable. If you were offered guaranteed promotion at the start of the season, you would say the best way to do it is Wembley. It’s a big arena and winning in that way and going upstairs to lift the cup is special and a moment all the boys will remember for the rest of their lives.
“It’s as big a high as I've had. Personally I’ve had a good career with the moves I’ve had but I’ve been beaten in the play-offs with Queen’s Park and lost in the Scottish Cup final with Dundee United, relegated with Hull City. To get them back up is brilliant.
“It’s the best day in my career. All my family are here and I can celebrate it with them.”
The Premier League will be a prosperous environment next season given the money which is awash in the English game.
Hull will be one of the smaller clubs but that doesn’t matter to Robertson and his team-mates who made their way onto the bus with beers in their hands and broad smiles on their faces.
He said: “As a group of boys we are close and we get on. We have to take that into next season and enjoy the experience- big names, big stadiums etc. We will have the aim of trying to stay in that league.
“I now fly out Tuesday morning from Glasgow to join up with the Scotland squad. I’ve a couple of nights down here to celebrate and then we will go over for the France game. It would be nice to finish the season on a high there.”
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