How Huddersfield Town’s Alex Smithies held his nerve at being put on spot in Wembley final

The now 30-year-old saved two penalties to help keep Huddersfield’s promotion hopes alive after they had missed their first three penalties in a dramatic – and slightly bizarre – shootout at Wembley.

The contest had ended 0-0, with Huddersfield getting past MK Dons and the Blades seeing off Stevenage in their respective semi-final ties.

With just four of the first 10 penalties scored, Smithies could hardly believe that the following 10 efforts all found the back of the net.

The burden then fell to the Huddersfield-born player, who relied on power more than precision to beat Steve Simonsen in the Sheffield United goal, who managed to get a hand to the ball but could not keep it out.

The Blades keeper then stepped up but fired his shot well over the bar and into the jubilant Town supporters in Wembley’s West Stand.

“No-one really seemed to score in the first six or seven penalties,” recalled Smithies who currently plies his trade at Cardiff City.

“It got to sudden death and I thought it would be over quickly but everyone just kept scoring.

“It got to seven, eight and nine and then I thought, ‘I am going to need to take one here.’

“With their 10th penalty, I wanted to save it because I knew I would have to take one.

“It went in and that is when reality set in, I knew had to score and I remember being really nervous about taking it.

“The magnitude of the game and what it meant to me, it was just pure relief when I scored.”

He added: “The saves just kept us in it. It was a case of ‘we have got to score soon,’ so I just kept us within touching distance.

“It is bizarre really because when it got to sudden death me or Simonsen didn’t save one between us.

“In the first few penalties, it was just about keeping us in touching distance and not letting it be over after six penalties.”

Smithies turned out to be Huddersfield’s hero, the club he had spent his whole career at after signing as an eight-year-old, but he almost didn’t play in the promotion decider.

He broke back into the team in February of 2012, playing 13 games before picking up an ear injury in training, which required plastic surgery.

Ian Bennett replaced him in the team and continued to keep his place in the side when Smithies returned to fitness.

However, Bennett broke his hand in the second leg of the play-off semi final against MK Dons.

“I was expecting him to play right through the play-offs but then he came off in the second game as he had broken his hand,” added Smithies.

“When I came on the only thing on my mind was to get through this semi-final so we can get to Wembley.

“It was devastating for Benno because he was a proper role model to me at the time.

“He was a really experienced goalkeeper and he really looked out for me.

“I supported him when he was in the team and he did everything he could for me whenever I was playing.

“It was quite a strange run of events for me to actually be playing in the final.”

Smithies went on to play every league game for Town in the following two seasons and missed just two games in the third campaign since promotion before he departed for Queens Park Rangers in 2015.

“It really was a dream at the time,” reflected Smithies on helping the Terriers return to the second tier.

“I was only young in my career and from the age of eight all I had known was Huddersfield Town which was when I signed for them on schoolboy teams.

“I am from Huddersfield, all my family are from the area and I remember picturing moments like that as a kid.

“It is crazy how things turn out, the memories I have looking back are amazing and it was a really special time.

“To get promoted and then cementing my place the next year in the Championship was brilliant.

“It was fantastic to get that experience at such a young age and to do it at my hometown club as well.”

Huddersfield established their place in the Championship after promotion before their eventual return to the top flight in the 2016-17 campaign.

Smithies was still a QPR player when Christopher Schindler fired the Terriers into the Premier League with the winning penalty in the shoot out against Reading in the Championship play-off final.

And although he was not a part of the celebrations on the pitch, Smithies is proud to have been a part of the journey that saw the Terriers promoted to the Premier League.

“I went to the Championship play-off final with my family because they are still Huddersfield fans,” he added.

“It was amazing to see the celebrations and how far the club had come. When I turned pro, Stan Ternent was the manager and we were a middle of the run team in League One.

“To see the transformation when Dean Hoyle came in when I was there and to see it was still progressing after I left was a great feeling.”

Editor’s note: First and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you. James Mitchinson, Editor