CIAN Bolger has revealed he was a reluctant penalty taker for the Shrimpers at Wembley on Saturday.

The Irish centre-back fired an impressive spot-kick into the top right-hand side of the net past Wycombe Wanderers goalkeeper Alex Lynch.

But Bolger admitted it had been a different story during training in the build up to the play-off final.

“I had been taking them all week in training and I had been scuffing them all too,” said the 23-year-old.

“I didn’t really want to take one if I’m honest, but you just have to grin and bear it and thankfully I timed it right to hit a good one.

“It went in and to win it like we did was all a bit mad in the end.”

The victory secured promotion for the Shrimpers and completed a terrific turnaround for Bolger who recovered from a shaky start to the season to end the campaign in fine fashion.

But Bolger is already aiming to improve and he would love to do so still playing alongside the experienced Adam Barrett.

“I don’t know what the situation is with Adam’s future but playing next to him has been a huge learning curve for me,” said the Irishman.

“He’s helped me a lot since he’s been here, even when I was out the team so it would be nice if that could continue.

“I left Bolton because I wanted to achieve things like this promotion in my career but now I want to kick on and do even more.”