ALAN LEE says Huddersfield Town will take “a little bit of hurt” into next season and go on to be promotion winners.
The vastly-experienced Republic of Ireland international, 32, got on as a late substitute at Old Trafford yesterday as Town lost 3-0 to Peterborough in the League I play-off final.
It means another season in the third tier of English football, but Lee was immediately in bullish mood about Town’s chances of reaching the Championship in 2012.
“It wasn’t our day and congratulations to Peterborough because they took the bull by the horns,” said Lee, who was signed from Crystal Palace at the end of the August transfer window.
“We had a bit of a crazy 10 minutes or so, and it was bitterly disappointing for us all – particularly the younger lads in the squad.
“Our season deserved to end better, but we will stick together, crack on and keep a little bit of hurt inside us.
“We need to remember that hurt for next season and go out and win the title in style. I’m very confident we are capable of doing that.”
Lee, who went on for the final 10 minutes in place of Scott Arfield, added: “I feel we have learned a lot since Christmas.
“If we had anything like our end-of-season form at the start of the campaign then we would have been fine, so I just hope we can keep everyone together – keep the likes of Killer (Kevin Kilbane) at the club – and we can put the lessons to good use.”
On the match, Lee explained: “The first goal made all the difference. That was the key.
“I thought we were all over them for the first half hour of the second half but, once they got the first goal, we lost a little bit of composure and you see that all the time in football.
“It gave them a lift, so the first goal was the crucial thing and then they got another very quickly.
“The result hurt. There was a lot of pain in our dressing room and a lot of shell-shocked people. That’s understandable because a hell of a lot of hard work has gone into our season and it will take time to recover from the fact we’ve ended up not going up.
“There’s nothing we can do about that now, but we have a great club here, with great support and excellent players, and we will take that into next season with the aim of being champions.”
Scottish international Gary Naysmith was another to applaud the fans, but also pointed out why some of Town’s squad were so cut up about the defeat.
“We will come back and be installed among the favourites for promotion again, but the disappointment is too much to really think about that at the moment,” said the 32-year-old left-back.
“The club is not in any financial hardship because we’ve got a great chairman, but I feel for people like Lee Peltier and Alex Smithies, and some of the younger players we’ve got. They are more than good enough to be playing Championship football and they are potentially players for the Premier League in the next couple of years, so to have another year in League I is very disappointing.
“That’s not being disrespectful to League I, it’s just that players like that should be playing Championship football week in week out and we were so close to doing it.”
Naysmith added: “I don’t think the squad will break up. It will only break up if the lads want it to, because I don’t think we are under any pressure to sell people.
“We are fortunate to have such a good owner (Dean Hoyle) who is a Huddersfield man through and through, and I feel sorry for him with this defeat because of the money he has put into the club.
“I don’t think we really played like we have been doing. In the first half, we were all huff and puff and then, after 60 or 65 minutes, I thought we were going to go on and win it, because we were on top and you could really feel it.
“But then we gave away two or three free-kicks and they took the lead with a great delivery, got a deflection for the second and then we were fighting a losing battle from there.
“There is always a winner and a loser and we are feeling now like Bournemouth felt when we beat them on penalties.
“At times like this all you can do is give credit to Peterborough, because they have come and done what they had to do, wish them luck for next season and then make sure we are ready to come back when the time comes.”
