Crystal Palace manager Ian Holloway believes Wilfried Zaha’s “moment of genius” was the difference between his team and Watford and admits it’s “horrible” to lose a play-off final.

Zaha fooled Marco Cassetti into bringing him down in the box in extra-time and Kevin Phillips dispatched the resulting penalty as Palace won 1-0 to seal promotion to the Premier League.

“Games like that are won and lost on moments of genius and I think Wilfried’s little run was almost unplayable,” Holloway said.

“I knew that it could go either way, I knew we had to be at our best and I hoped the lads would be.

“But it looked like we’d missed a few too many chances to be honest - their keeper made some brilliant saves – I was just pleased really, pleased the boys settled so clearly.

“Obviously with the injury [to Kagisho Dikgacoi], that really did rock my boat because there was such a long time to go.

“But in the end, what a wonderful story it is, Kevin Phillips hasn’t won a play-off final and he just has, we were in a different dressing room and he’s never been on the winning side.

“Wilfried got the penalty and it was a penalty which was a relief because you don’t want the referee making a bad decision and ruining a game like that.

“And then Kev put it in, so really that’s how it is. What can I say? I’m pleased for him and I’m delighted for Crystal Palace.”

Holloway was on the losing side in the play-off final last year with Blackpool and the Palace boss admitted he felt sympathy for Watford.

“It’s horrible for Watford, I had it last year but it’s all about taking it in the right way and being dignified which they were," he said.

“I’m going to enjoy today and tonight and then scratch my head and wonder how we’re going to stay in the Premier League because we’ve lost Wilfried.”

He added: “We were just conscious Watford didn’t get too many breakaways because when they get their formation right and they break they are very, very dangerous.

“We were very worried about Vydra, for us he came off at half-time, normally he causes all sorts of problems.

“And just generally what we’ve talked about for 14 days - the lads actually carried that out to a man, they were fantastic.”

Holloway was asked about Watford’s recruitment policy which he has been critical of in the past.

“That was then and this is now,” he said. “They’ve done brilliantly in the foreign market with that family owning it.

“I’m only concerned about English players playing in England for us so they can play for the England national team and if you can get eight from one team abroad how fair is that?

“It doesn’t seem to fair to me but that was then and this is now.”