Gary Hooper: Bidding to complete a promotion treble with Sheffield Wednesday

THIS will be my fourth time at Wembley and, hopefully, we can take Sheffield Wednesday back to the Premier League.
Gary Hooper on helping Sheffield Wednesday reach the play-off finalGary Hooper on helping Sheffield Wednesday reach the play-off final
Gary Hooper on helping Sheffield Wednesday reach the play-off final

If we do win promotion, it will be the third time I have done it in the play-offs at Wembley and there really is no better place to go up.

The celebrations when Norwich City went up a year ago were huge and it would be great to repeat that this time around.

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Moving to Hillsborough has been great for me. I had to get out of Norwich because I was not playing.

In my first month, I tried to get fit and the gaffer put me in. That was a great boost for me, as it showed he believed in me.

I had to wait a bit for the goals but the fans were great from the very start. They travel in such numbers, it doesn’t matter where the game is played, and I am sure they will pack out Wembley.

There is huge potential here. The fans come along in huge numbers, whether we are at home or away. It would be nice to take them back to the Premier League, they deserve it.

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A big plus for me this season was how quickly I clicked with Fernando Forestieri. We work together well and I think that shows on the pitch. It helps that we attack as a team.

We have built momentum as the season has gone along. There have been some ups and downs along the way, as you’d expect with a new group of players.

We lost against two of the bottom three and drew against the other but then didn’t lose against any of the play-off teams. That was strange.

But, once we got on a run and started to play like we know we can, we became hard to beat. We have kept clean sheets, as we did against Brighton in the semi-final home leg.

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We also got the second goal that night, which was vital. It meant we went to Brighton with a two-goal lead and that proved crucial.

It was tough at first down there and they got the goal. But then Ross Wallace scored and it changed things. People said afterwards I fouled their defender as the ball came across but the referee didn’t see it so it doesn’t matter.

Getting through and celebrating at Brighton was great. But the 12-day gap meant we were able to come back down and start preparing, ready to go again.

Our manager, Carlos Carvalhal, deserves a lot of credit for getting us this far. He is great. He gives us the freedom to play our football. He makes sure we enjoy it.

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He keeps us going. His enthusiasm filters through to all the lads, they want to play for him.

I felt he kept us going at Brighton even when Brighton were on top in the first half. He gave us the belief we needed to go through.

Hopefully, I can now get another promotion. Hull are a good team with good players. But we haven’t lost against them.

I know form doesn’t really go into a final as a big factor but to not have lost against them is something.

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Anything can happen in the final but we will be confident of maintaining that run of not having lost against any of the teams in the play-offs.

This will be my fourth time at Wembley and, hopefully, I can get another promotion to go with Norwich last year and Scunthorpe (in 2009).

Interviews: Richard Sutcliffe.