When the Premier League was there for Sheffield United at Wembley, they failed to grasp it.
That was the brutal truth of this year's Championship play-off final. Now the Blades must use their 2-1 defeat to Sunderland to fuel an automatic promotion next season before the Premier League parachute is cut from above them.
First, though, they will have some regrets to work through.
As always there were “what ifs” for the losing side – what if there had been no video assistant referee, like in all the other games both teams played in the season? What if Gustavo Hamer, who brilliantly made the opening goal, had not gone off injured? What if Sheffield United had 11 players on the field when Tommy Watson scored his wonderfully-taken and crushingly-timed winner?
But footballers talk about controlling the controllables and the Blades lost control of a couple of crucial ones. It was enough for a season of revival to count for diddly squat.
To be so amazing when it goes right, football – more so at Wembley – must be incredibly cruel too.
That was what made this such a good/horrible match – three wonderful goals including a game-changer in stoppage-time, injuries, mistakes, redemption tales, sob stories and even arguments about VAR.
It was fairytale stuff for the Wearsiders, a very grim fairytale for all Bladesmen and women.
DESPAIR: Sheffield United fans at the final whistle (Image: Paul Terry / Sportimage)DESPAIR: Sheffield United fans at the final whistle (Image: Paul Terry / Sportimage)
DESPAIR: Sheffield United fans at the final whistle (Image: Paul Terry / Sportimage)
For the Black Cats it was about perseverance, determination and even forgiveness. For the Blades not what might have been, what should have been.
Never has the points gap between two finalists in this game – 14 – been as wide, and the Blades made it tell.
The first half was all theirs, but the goal Tyrese Campbell coolly lifted over Anthony Patterson all they had to show for it.
Whilst Sunderland applied more second-half pressure they were kept at arm's length from Michael Cooper, whose only save was from Chris Rigg late in the first period.
WINNERS: Sunderland players celebrate their promotion (Image Paul Terry / Sportimage)WINNERS: Sunderland players celebrate their promotion (Image Paul Terry / Sportimage)
WINNERS: Sunderland players celebrate their promotion (Image Paul Terry / Sportimage)
But when Andre Brooks, on five minutes earlier for Rhian Brewster, pounced on Dennis Cirkin's brain freeze he shot close enough for Patterson to stick out a leg and save.
Two-nil after 70 minutes would surely have been that.
As is so often the way, a decisive miss was punished by a goal, former Middlesbrough player Patrick Roberts threading a lovely ball Eliezer Mayenda finished far too emphatically for Cooper to have a chance.
As the game went into stoppage time it looked like we were going to have more than seven added minutes. Extra-time was looming.
WHAT HAVE I DONE? Sheffield United Kieffer Moore at the final whistle (Image: Paul Terry / Sportimage)WHAT HAVE I DONE? Sheffield United Kieffer Moore at the final whistle (Image: Paul Terry / Sportimage)
WHAT HAVE I DONE? Sheffield United Kieffer Moore at the final whistle (Image: Paul Terry / Sportimage)
But when Anel Ahmedhodzic went off the field injured – as Hamer and his replacement Ben Brereton Diaz had done earlier – Blades brains failed to click into gear.
They had used all five substitutes – at least until given another in extra-time – but if the head injury was concussion, they (and Sunderland) would get one more.
As they assessed their options, Kieffer Moore laid the ball off too far behind Brooks and the midfield opened for Watson – a local castigated by fans for running down his contract to join Brighton and Hove Albion – to carry it goalwards and unleash another unstoppable shot.
That was in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time, as opposed to Dan Ballard's aggregate winner in the second minute lumped onto semi-final extra-time.
It was harsh on Moore in possibly his best game since returning from hernia surgery – at least until then.
His header from Hamer's second-minute cross forced a tremendous low save. Sunderland captain Luke O'Nien came off with a dislocated shoulder after nearly five minutes of treatment and oxygen trying to cut the cross out. The Blades did not have a monopoly on injuries.
BIG MOMENT: Andre Brooks gets past Dennis Cirkin but is unable to find a shot which can beat Sunderland goalkeeper Anthony Patterson (Image: David Klein / Sportimage)BIG MOMENT: Andre Brooks gets past Dennis Cirkin but is unable to find a shot which can beat Sunderland goalkeeper Anthony Patterson (Image: David Klein / Sportimage)
BIG MOMENT: Andre Brooks gets past Dennis Cirkin but is unable to find a shot which can beat Sunderland goalkeeper Anthony Patterson (Image: David Klein / Sportimage)
The one they never want is Hamer, whose burst of pace as a Sunderland corner broke down gave him time to perfectly measure and brilliantly execute a pass Campbell lifted over Patterson 25 minutes in.
Harrison Burrows scored a goal perhaps its equal 10 minutes later, volleying from the chalk of the D, only for Chris Kavanagh to be called to the pitchside monitor.
There he saw Vincius Souza in an offside position and Patterson's way. The correct decision was reached and clearly explained to the crowd.
So the Blades needed another, and losing Hamer after 70 minutes did not help. Nor did Brereton Diaz coming off.
But tiredness was creeping in, and Moore who produced such a lovely touch to set up a give-and-go with Sydie Peck after 53 minutes, could not do the same in the final minutes.
Mayenda, 20, was the second-youngest scorer in the history of this final until it was 19-year-old Watson.
From the wreckage of a dreadful 2023-24, slow out of the blocks in the summer transfer market, Sheffield United produced a 92-point season and a record play-off semi-final win.
The last bit was just beyond them.
Sheffield United: Cooper; Choudhury, Ahmedhodzic (Seriki 90+7), Robinson, Burrows; Brewster (Brooks 64), Peck (T Davies 90), Souza, Hamer (Brereton Diaz 72 (Cannon 90)); Moore, Campbell (O'Hare 64). Unused substitutes: McCallum, Holding, A Davies.
Sunderland: Patterson; Hume, Ballard, O'Nien (Mepham 8), Cirkin; Neil (Watson 72), Bellingham; Rigg (Roberts 58), Le Fee, Mundle (Isidor 72); Mayenda (Hjelde 90+7). Unused substitutes: Browne, Abdul Samed, S Moore, Jones.
Referee: C Kavanagh (Ashton-under-Lyne).