Huddersfield Town 0-0 Sheffield United - Huddersfield Town win 8-7 on penalties

By Pascal Lemesre, Football League Editor | 26 May 2012

Huddersfield 0-0 Sheffield Utd - Huddersfield win 8-7 on penalties

Huddersfield are promoted to the Championship after a dramatic 8-7 penalty-shootout victory over Sheffield United at a blistering Wembley.

Huddersfield Town have been promoted to the Championship after a dramatic 8-7 victory on penalties over Sheffield United at Wembley.

Despite Huddersfield seeing most of the ball early on, it was United who looked most threatening in the opening half with Terriers' keeper Alex Smithies appearing uneasy.

First the young Englishman looked hesitant following a long ball forward, before he missed two attempted punches when trying to clear crosses from his area but luckily for Huddersfield nothing came of these mishaps.

Simon Grayson's side's main threat seemed to come from right-back Jack Hunt as the two Yorkshire teams went in level at the break with not a single real goalscoring opportunity.

Huddersfield almost had the lead moments into the second period when Danny Ward hit the upright with a fizzing drive.

The game then petered out in the next half an hour, with neither side testing the keepers at either end in the hot conditions.

The first attempt on target came in the 83rd minute when Peter Clarke saw his header saved low by Steve Simonsen before Lee Novak saw his rebound effort cleared off the line by Blades captain Michael Doyle.

The Terriers took confidence from this and Clarke again saw a header saved before top scorer Jordan Rhodes watched his header drift wide of the far post.

Substitute Chris Porter sent a header bobbling wide of the post with a rare Sheffield chance before full time was called.

Porter was having an impact and saw another header blocked before Stephen Quinn danced inside the area but his low effort was palmed away by Smithies.

In the second 15 of extra time Huddersfield substitute Alan Lee was denied acrobatically by Simonsen before Clark again won a header, this time the ball was cleared off the line by Nick Montgomery.

Penalties would settle promotion the second tier of English football as neither side could find a way through after 120 minutes of lacklustre football.

Six of the opening eight penalties were missed as both sides looked nervous before 13 penalties in a row were scored with Terriers keeper Smithies beating his opposite number Simonsen with the 21st penalty.

Simonsen himself then had to step up but the veteran goalie blazed over to send Huddersfield into the Championship.