Pearson coy on spot-kick gaffe

Pearson: Raw emotion

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Disappointed Leicester manager Nigel Pearson refused to blame Yann Kermorgant for his side missing out of the Championship play-off final.

Kermorgant tried to chip home his penalty with the shoot-out evenly poised at 3-3 after the semi-final second-leg encounter had finished 3-2 to Leicester after extra time.

A breathless game at the Cardiff City Stadium looked to be heading for a home win as Michael Chopra struck early on to double the Bluebirds advantage from Sunday's 1-0 first-leg victory.

But goals from Matty Fryatt, a Michael Hudson own goal and Andy King looked to have sent Leicester through, before Peter Whittingham's penalty leveller sent the game into added time and eventually penalties.

Both sides had notched all their kicks until substitute Kermorgant stepped up, and his scuffed chip was easily saved by David Marshall before Martyn Waghorn was denied by the home keeper to put Cardiff through.

Raw emotion

That gave Cardiff a 4-3 triumph, and despite expressing his bitter disappointment at missing out on the chance to reach the Premier League, Pearson refused to criticise the Frenchman for his gaffe.

Pearson told Sky Sports: "I think at this moment in time I'm going to leave the players with their own thoughts.

"What I think about it is neither here nor there. It's a difficult situation for the players to deal with and they need to think before they express things at the minute. But certainly, it's a cruel way to go out."

The defeat rounded off what had been a tremendous campaign for the Foxes in their first season back in the Championship.

And they looked on course to have a shot at making it back-to-back promotions until Cardiff executed their penalties with aplomb.

Leicester came up to the second tier after winning League One last season but Pearson was nevertheless upset at missing out on the chance to tackle Blackpool for a place in the top flight.

He added: "Tough - it's tough on the players. I think tonight our performance epitomised us this year. I think the commitment, desire, application was first rate. I can't ask a great deal more.

"Once you get to a penalty shoot-out it's about dealing with it and they've been better than us in it.

"There are a lot of very, very disappointed players in there and although the emotion's a bit raw at the moment, I'm proud of what they've achieved this season."

Leicester's performance in normal time demonstrated incredible comeback fortitude as they were outplayed in frantic opening exchanges in which Cardiff doubled their aggregate advantage.

But the Foxes' Steve Howard-inspired revival got underway with the big striker setting up Fryatt before causing Hudson to nod past his own keeper.

Exceptionally good

King's header then looked to have completed the turnaround before Whittingham struck level, although Pearson had no qualms about seeing the comeback collapse - instead praising his team for their effort throughout the campaign that secured an unlikely Championship play-off spot.

Asked to sum up the season, Pearson said: "Pride, with how the players have gone about it. But when you get to these play-offs you've got to give yourselves the best chance of going through.

"Tonight to come in at 2-1 up at half-time I don't know how they've done it because they started very, very well and we weren't at our best.

"But that's how football goes sometimes and there's no doubt over the two hours of football tonight the players have been exceptionally good but the commitment and application has been excellent as well.

"When you hear them celebrating it's a case of what could have been. We've got to get over that now."