‘We had a little party’: how to bounce back after losing a playoff final

It is hard to recover from the disappointment of playing 49 matches over nine months to end up back where you started, only with added dejection. It is painstaking work to get to a playoff final and when you lose it, a strict plan is needed to avoid slipping off the pace the following season.

Only six teams have lost the Championship playoff final and gone up the next year since the turn of the century. At the other end of the spectrum, Leeds went from being 90 minutes from the Premier League in 2006 to relegation the next season. A loss can have huge knock-on effects.

Huddersfield start on Friday against Burnley as they begin their recovery from losing the playoff final, via a Levi Colwill own goal, against Nottingham Forest. Continuity would have helped but they have lost their head coach Carlos Corberán and the key players Lewis O’Brien and Harry Toffolo.

Jem Karacan was part of Reading’s 2011 playoff final loss to Swansea and the squad that won the Championship the following season. “We jumped on the bus, got back to the Madejski and had a little party. It was quite strange; it was a celebration because there was no pressure any more – it was all done. We actually had a really good night, surprisingly; we all had a good laugh. That summed up the group. It wasn’t the typical, ‘Go home, get your heads down and think about your performance’. It was an incredible achievement to get there, so we had to celebrate something that was so unexpected.”

Getting the disappointment out of a player’s mind is crucial, otherwise it will lurk in the background for a long time, infesting the squad going into pre-season. Most teams who fall at the final hurdle lose their best players, so signings are important to refresh and revive the