Patrick Roberts' late strike took Sunderland to Wembley Stadium for the League One play-off final at Sheffield Wednesday's expense on Monday evening.

The Owls have enjoyed an excellent second half of the season, and even briefly entered the automatic promotion conversation, but were unable to achieve an immediate return to the Championship.

George Byers has been a huge player in central midfield for Wednesday in the last few months, and the 25-year-old took to Instagram to express his emotions after the crushing defeat.

He said: "A lot of emotions after the other night.

"Will take me a while to get over it tbh (to be honest).

"However the atmosphere was insane and I just want to thank every fan for the continuous support this season.

"Sorry we couldn’t get there.

"But a proud feeling to play for this special club."

Byers' contract at Hillsborough runs until the summer of 2023, as does that of Barry Bannan, but Massimo Luongo's expires this summer, threatening to break up the midfield trio that has served the club so well in the last few months.

Wednesday's consistently high performance levels in the second half of the season should see them amongst the favourites for automatic promotion next term, and Byers will be crucial to that bid.

The Verdict

2020/21 was quite a difficult season for Byers in falling out of favour at Swansea City, but he has bounced back brilliantly this term, and has demonstrated that he could be playing at a higher level.

In terms of organic revenue streams Wednesday will continue to be a powerhouse in the third tier next season, especially if Sunderland get promoted, and that should enable them to attract players to fuel even a league title push in 2022/23.

It is the Owls' slow start to the campaign that has ultimately cost them promotion back to the second tier and that will be something that Moore and his staff are desperate to avoid heading into next season.