Rotherham's Wembley hero Adam Collin says the manner of his exit overshadows the incredible highs he achieved at the club.
Collin was one of 11 players released by the Millers on Friday after he spent the latter part of last season on loan at Scottish Premiership runners-up Aberdeen, ending a three-year stay in South Yorkshire.
The 31-year-old wrote himself into Millers folklore with two penalty shootout saves in the League One play-off final victory at Wembley and then played a major part in the club's Championship survival in 2014-15.
But that was as good as it got for Collin, who could only manage two appearances last season before then-boss Steve Evans brought in Lee Camp.
He was then condemned to the bench before being allowed to join the Dons on loan until the end of the season in February, effectively ending his Millers career.
"This season hasn't really worked out the way I hoped," he said. "It was a frustrating end to a good period in my career, it was disappointing really. It does take a shine off it.
"The Wembley day and the promotion will always rank at the top of my career. The team that year was just a solid team, the spine of it - Morgs, Arnie, Revs, it was just a good bunch of lads to be around.
"Then even in the Championship at the start it was good, but just to have that all peter out was very disappointing and leaves a little bit of a sour taste."
With the club being without a manager and releasing two other goalkeepers in Paddy Kenny and Alex Cairns there was a case for the Millers offering Collin a chance to resume his career at the club, but that was not to be.
"I have been looking at my options for a while now and Rotherham haven't been at the forefront of my thoughts," he added.
"I haven't had much to do with Rotherham since Neil Warnock came in. They have released the other two goalkeepers Cairns and Kenny, so they have only got Lee Camp on the books so there might have been a possibility to have me and Lee Camp there but obviously that hasn't happened.
"I am not going to lose any sleep over it. It's just time to move on."
Collin was forced to watch on from the bench as Camp produced the sort of form which won him a host of end-of-season awards and at the back end of Neil Redfearn's spell he decided to find first-team football.
He chose Aberdeen, who were in the midst of a title battle with Celtic at the time, on the promise of regular action, but that never materialised and he made just three appearances.
"It was frustrating, I went up there to play," he said. "I got told I was going to play and then you get in the dressing room and you see the team and you're not in it, you have to sit for 12 games on the bench it's just a frustrating period of time because I had the chance to go to one or two other clubs to go and play games and I knocked those back to go to Aberdeen.
"That didn't work out, but I played three times at the end, played against Celtic, which was a massive game. There were highs and lows."
