Delighted chairman Roland Wycherley paid tribute to manager Paul Simpson after seeing Shrewsbury secure a second Wembley outing in three years.

Mr Wycherley was sporting the biggest grin at Gigg Lane yesterday, having watched his side come from behind to beat Bury on penalties and reach the League Two play-off final.

Now he is keeping his fingers crossed that they can improve on the result in 2007, when they lost 3-1 to Bristol Rovers after opening the scoring.

“Let’s hope we have a different result this time to what we had last time,” said Mr Wycherley, who has been chairman at Shrewsbury since 1996.

“In truth, I didn’t think we were going to make the play-offs towards the end, I thought our season was going to finish the Saturday before last.

“Paul Simpson has done really well to get us there and I’m delighted for him.

“Our goalkeeper Luke Daniels was superb,” he added. “I think being named our young player of the year helped him and he produced a terrific display.”

Mr Wycherley was also thrilled for the travelling Town fans, who have had little to cheer on the road this season.

Shrewsbury’s poor away form ruined their chances of keeping up a challenge for automatic promotion, but they put that right in the final vital weeks of the campaign.

“I’m just so pleased for our fans,” he added.

“We had a sell-out of more than 2,000 fans at Bury and I’m delighted for them that they have got this reward.

“It has been a difficult season for watching us away from home but they have supported us through everything.

“We’ve won our last three away games to make it to Wembley, but that’s Shrewsbury Town for you – we never do anything the easy way.”