Gus Hamer outlines Coventry City intention after play-off heartbreak

Gus Hamer says all that Coventry City can do next season is go one better after painfully falling at the final hurdle in their quest for a return to the Premier League. City were beaten on penalties by top-flight bound Luton Town at Wembley on Saturday after a two-hour stalemate.

Midfielder Hamer, generally regarded as one of the best performing midfielders in the entire division this season, had drawn Sky Blues level with a fabulous second-half goal when he finished off a fine counter attacking move which also involved Callum Doyle and fellow star player Viktor Gyokeres, but his afternoon ended prematurely through an ankle injury.

The Dutch-Brazilian, who when equalising cancelled out Jordan Clark’s first-half opener, will naturally be the subject of plenty of speculation this coming summer. It’s accepted that Hamer, who has a year remaining on his City contract, is deserving of a crack at the Premier League, and it was of course hoped that that chance might come in a sky blue jersey.

What the summer holds for Hamer remains to be seen as of yet, but for now he’ll take a short break like the rest of the squad and, until he hears otherwise, will head back to Ryton for pre-season and aim for promotion again.

“I don’t think we would necessarily have won the game if I had stayed on the pitch,” he said. “The team did an amazing job – it’s a team effort, we didn’t lose the game and we win or lose together. It was a story of chances and mistakes on both sides, and in the shoot-out it was always likely that the first one to miss would lose the game, and unfortunately it was us.