Jordan Rhodes lost for words as £27m flop becomes unlikely play-off hero

Jordan Rhodes rolled back the years to fire Huddersfield Town to within one game of a Premier League return.

The 32-year-old struck late on to seal a 1-0 win for the Terriers against Luton Town in the second leg of the Championship play-off semi-final at the John Smith's Stadium. That earned a 2-1 aggregate win and booked them a place at Wembley for the final against either Nottingham Forest or Sheffield United on Sunday, May 29.

Rhodes, in his second stint at Huddersfield, scored a whopping 40 goals for the club in the final season of his first spell with the club. And his final act was to help the club win a Wembley showpiece.

That was in the 2012 League One final against Sheffield United and proved to be his last act in a Terriers' shirt before big-money moves to Blackburn, Middlesbrough and Sheffield Wednesday.

Those three high-profile transfers totted up to a total of £27million but after all that he ended up back at Town last summer on a free transfer. And despite being resigned mostly to a substitutes' role for most of the season, he struck the only goal of the game eight minutes from time against Luton to book another final date.

"There's not many words for it!" a shell-shocked Rhodes told Sky Sports.

"Special nights like this - you'll remember for a lifetime. That was the message before the game: to go out there and make it a memorable night and do ourselves proud."

The poacher's finish was a landmark one for Rhodes as it was his 200th league goal - and he was asked if he had ever scored a more important one. "I can't think of one to mind," he said. "But I'm just happy to be on the field and to try and contribute. And Huddersfield Town going to Wembley has got a good ring to it!"

Terriers' boss Carlos Corberan was delighted with his players' performance as they booked their place in the final.

He said: "It was clear from the start that our target was to play the Championship play-off final. Fortunately today we achieved the result that allows us to go to Wembley and play this special game. It was not an easy game and we had to work really really hard. I don't think there was really a time where we were better than Luton but we got the special moment from a set-piece.

"First half I think we could have played longer to get in behind the defenders and we didn't feel we were better than them. They made it difficult for us to press them and to feel comfortable on the first.

"The second half was a lot more balanced. As a club we try always to learn from everything we do. The only secret is the players. We have players with very good character and a determination to make something special happen this year."