Jordan Rhodes and Tom Lees come full circle with Huddersfield Town’s play-off achievement

That aforementioned second leg on May 17, 2017, saw Lees credited with an own goal to make it 1-1 on the night.

Town went onto triumph on penalties, with Rhodes – who came on as a substitute for the Owls – electing not to take a spot-kick after missing from 12 yards in a league game against Yorkshire opposition in Leeds United earlier in that 2016-17 season.

In Monday’s pivotal second instalment against Luton at the John Smith’s Stadium, Rhodes rewound the clock much further to happier times in his initial golden association with the Terriers – with the sort of goal which he built his career upon.

His movement was instinctive from Sorba Thomas’s free-kick and his finish was deadly. Natural-born predators never lose it.

It was a goal, as Carlos Corberan pointed out afterwards, that was difficult to score and one that only certain players can score.

Huddersfield is the club where the striker has been at his happiest alongside his three-and-a-half season stint at Blackburn and here was a glorious reminder of what he can bring to the table.

Rhodes said: “I closed my eyes and made good contact on it. I was delighted to see it go in. Special nights and memories, I will take that until the day I die.

“To come back here and return with the fans at a sell-out, I couldn’t have asked (for more). It is fairytale stuff.”

On scoring the goal that took Town back to Wembley, the 32-year-old, who rejoined the club last summer. continued: “It feels great and has got a nice ring to it. These fantastic, great nights are why you play football. It keeps you going in the times when you are feeling a bit blue and football is sending you along a bit of a disillusioned path. This is why you keep going for nights like this.

“We have given ourselves a chance (at Wembley) and nothing is done yet, but we are in it to win it and you never know what can happen on any given day. It will be a special day and one we will all remember for a lifetime.”

Like Rhodes, Lees was in need of a lift when he joined in August.

The latter period of his time at Wednesday – where there was tumult on and off the pitch – had been draining. Relegation at the end of last season was the final wound for Lees, a former captain.

Freed last June, the defender has found a home again among like-minded characters.

Character is the operative word when it comes to Town’s players. The club’s famed ‘Terrier Spirit’ ethos, which served the team so well in their epic 2016-17 promotion campaign, is abundant in the current one.

In the summer of 2016, bonds were forged during a Bear Gryll’s trip to a remote and uninhabited Swedish island which tested mentality and resilience.

Recruitment, certainly last summer, revolved not just around strategically bringing in players in key areas of the pitch and balancing the squad, but also signing individuals who were proper people, like those in 16-17.

The characters of Lees, Rhodes and fellow senior players Lee Nicholls, Matty Pearson, Oliver Turton and Josh Ruffels were vetted at meetings on an industrial estate in Cleckheaton where the prospective signings had to answer specific questions about their beliefs and core values.

The club worked with a psychologist to set up meetings and given the impact of last summer’s intake, the right people have entered the building, both from a football and mentality stand-point. All arrived at the meetings early, before head of football operations Leigh Bromby.

The former Leeds United, Wednesday and Sheffield United centre-back, afforded justifiable credit for his part in Town’s exceptional recruitment, commented: “You see these players day in day out and the professionalism they bring to this club.

“We don’t want to be signing players who are too old and there was that criticism and that’s fair. But I think they have shown they have come here hungry and set the standards for all the younger players. It’s fantastic to see.

“I think the work that the players and staff have put in during the season got us over the line (on Monday). It was that togetherness that we always speak about.”

On the specific impact of Lees, Bromby added: “He’s been outstanding all season. I have known Tom a long time, since he was a young player at Leeds. We knew what we were recruiting.

“He’s a good person who gives everything and sets the standards in training each day. That’s what you get on the pitch in big games.

“He deserved that (on Monday) as we knocked him out of the semi-final (in 2017). Jordan was also involved in that and fingers crossed that they can look forward now.”