Two exquisite goals – his first competitive ones in the blue and white of Wednesday – were reason enough for jumping through a hoop or two in his first Owls' appearance since January, but then came the sting.

Anyone who needed further proof that the wheel of footballing fortune can turn remarkably quickly only needed to pop down to Hillsborough, where the strangest of South Yorkshire derbies culminated in a penalty shootout Carling Cup success for Rotherham.

The late drama ultimately centred on Esajas who, after his golden brace which was countered straight away by a quick-fire Millers leveller, played the decisive hand in the shootout with his effort hitting the outside of the post in front of the Kop while everybody else on both sides scored.

But despite admitting he felt he'd let down his team in the 5-3 shootout loss, after the tie ended 2-2, Esajas insists he'd have no hesitation in plucking up the Dutch courage to take one again – if the chance arose again.

Amsterdam-born speedster Esajas, who signed for the Owls for an undisclosed fee from Vitesse Arnhem 12 months ago, said: "I'd taken some penalties, but had never missed a penalty before. But I'm not afraid to take one, you need to step up your game.

"I took my chance and missed. I feel sorry about that but next time I'll do better.

"I had one of my best games and when I look back at the game I'll remember that. But after the game, I felt I let the team down.

"It was a strange feeling after the game. I felt I really did some good work, scored my first two goals for the first team and was really, really happy about that.

"I took my chance because I didn't start in the first game (against Burnley).

" really wanted to show what I am about, it was just really unlucky that after both our goals, we just had one minute before they scored both their goals.

"It wasn't that they were really good. We were just unlucky with both goals.