Sheffield Wednesday's 2021-22 season ended in heartbreak on Monday evening when Sunderland crushed their hopes of reaching the League One play-off final at Wembley.

The Owls had a one-goal deficit to overturn from the first leg on Friday night, which saw Ross Stewart score the only goal of the contest at the Stadium of Light.

Alex Neil's side were resolute against the attacking dangers of Wednesday for 74 minutes - which is when Lee Gregory levelled the contest in-front of the Spion Kop at Hillsborough.

The match looked destined to go another 30 minutes in extra time, however within the 10 minutes that were added on at the end, Patrick Roberts struck a death blow to Wednesday's chances of making it to the Championship for the 2022-23 campaign.

Darren Moore can't be faulted for going all out for the tie though, especially after selecting Josh Windass from the very start.

Despite doubts over his fitness after multiple hamstring issues this season, Windass started the match alongside Gregory up-front after coming off the bench in the first leg of the play-off, as well as in the two games prior against Fleetwood Town and Portsmouth.

Windass was eventually withdrawn in the second half and he had to watch on as his side ended up losing out on aggregate, and he has published a message on Twitter to Owls fans following the result, but also to Sunderland as well.

The Verdict

It shows maturity from Windass to wish Sunderland well after they came out on top, but on reflection he will be bitterly disappointed about how the 2021-22 season panned out.

Wednesday turned down transfer approaches for the forward in the summer from the Championship and not long after that, a hamstring injury put him on the sidelines for months.

Just when it looked like he was going to single-handedly take the Owls up when he returned to fitness with four goals in seven league outings, Windass suffered another setback and in turn that could've dented Wednesday's promotion hopes.

Darren Moore had enough firepower to cope in the end, but on a personal note, Windass will be hoping for a much better 2022-23 campaign - one where he stays fit and fires Wednesday to automatic promotion.