I'm in the middle of reading Richard Foster's enjoyable book about the history of the play-offs ("The Agony and the ecstasy")
This line I thought really encapsulated the feeling of a play-off defeat - particularly how I felt after the Watford defeat, as I'd never felt so glum about football for a summer. But also Cardiff, Blackburn, Swindon....
"all that way, after forty-nine games and been so close to promotion but now facing the prospect of remaining in the same division and having to start all over again next season. There is a distinctly hollow feeling, an emptiness that lingers and quite often spills into the next season unless the negativity is contained."