Hurst calls for rule change after play-off final defeat

Richard Wood's brace secured victory for the 'Millers', but 'Shrews' boss Hurst believes that the game descended into a "farce" after he was forced to use all of his substitutions during normal time.

"We had a good spell after we'd equalised but the game became a farce because of the heat and people were cramping for both teams," he explained. "I'm not just saying it because we've lost, but you play 48 games and also cup games in a season. I know what the rules are but it wasn't a good ending to the game, you should get more subs.

"Maybe it adds to the drama for the neutral watching but you can't really play how'd you'd like. Congratulations to Warney (Paul Warne), though, and everyone at Rotherham United for returning at the first attempt."

Rotherham's promotion means that all three sides that were relegated from the Championship last season returned at the first time of asking, with Blackburn and Wign promoted automatically, something which Hurst believes shows the gap between the divisions.

"The fact three teams that all went down have been promoted suggests it's very difficult and they have a big advantage," he said.

"I don't mind admitting that I had worries over the gulf in terms of budget and finance if we'd got promoted. It would have been a vast challenge and it would have been very difficult, but it was one we wanted to tackle.

"The bigger challenge now is trying to get a team and squad together to even get close to replicating what we've done this season, that's the balancing act and the difficulty. We've talked about raising expectations but we've blown the roof off them in terms of that [this season]. Can we do that again next season? That's a massive challenge and I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about it."

Finally, Hurst insisted he was not disappointed with how the season panned out, despite having spent much of the season battling for the automatic promotion positions.

"My stomach is telling me to be disappointed but my head is telling me to be very proud," he said. "We've come so close to getting promoted but naturally everyone connected with Shrewsbury Town wanted that fairytale ending and we haven't got that."