IT'S A SEASON TO REMEMBER; Promotion built on Rhodes' 40 goals.

Byline: DOUG THOMSON

IT was drama all the way as Town won promotion by the tightest margin in their 104-year history.

Forty goals from hot shot Jordan Rhodes, eight signings, six loan arrivals and one managerial change were among the key numbers en route to a place in the Championship after the club's third successive play-off campaign came down to an amazing penalty shoot-out which went to 22 kicks.

Who could ever have predicted that a goalkeeper would put away the shot which took Town back up to the second tier after an 11-year absence? Step forward Alex Smithies, the homegrown hero who will go down in club folklore after being put on the spot - quite literally!

Only in Simon Grayson's side because veteran Ian Bennett was denied a Wembley showdown with his former club Sheffield United due to a hand injury, Smithies kept a clean sheet in a League I play-off final which remained goalless after extra time, then saved two shoot-out spot kicks before scoring one himself as Town won 8-7 on penalties.

The excitement and emotion was immense as the blue-and-white half of a 52,100 crowd partied long and hard.

And for 22-year-old Smithies, what a finish to a campaign which began with the recurrence of an injury nightmare during a friendly.

It took two operations to sort out a knee problem which kept the stopper out until the February 14 showdown with Sheffield United.

It also proved to be a memorable Valentine's Day for Lee Clark - for the wrong reasons.

Town lost 1-0, and even though his side were fourth in the table and had earlier in the season set a new Football League record of 43 games unbeaten, bettering the mark of Brian Clough's Euro-conquering Nottingham Forest side of the late Seventies, Clark was axed by concerned chairman Dean Hoyle, who feared the club he has supported since childhood would miss out on promotion once again.

Hoyle put his faith in the proven track record of Grayson, himself sacked by Town's arch-rivals Leeds on February 1. The 42-year-old had previously led both Blackpool and the Elland Road club out of League I, and can now boast a hat trick after 19 matches at Town's helm.

Last Saturday's final was the 54th game of the season for the club, who went into the opening match at home to Bury having sold star winger Anthony Pilkington to Norwich and full-back Lee Peltier to Leicester and fielding new arrivals Calum Woods (Dunfermline), Oscar Gobern (Southampton), Anton Robinson (Bournemouth), Donal McDermott (Manchester City), Danny Ward (Bolton) and Tommy Miller (Sheffield Wednesday).

Clark had also brought in centre-back Liam Cooper on loan from Hull and reclaimed experienced Plymouth midfielder Damien Johnson, who had impressed the previous season before being sidelined by a knee injury.

Later arrivals were Falkirk duo Kallum Higginbotham and Murray Wallace, the latter being loaned back for the rest of the season, while Clark recruited Cardiff striker Jon Parkin, Leeds defender Alex Bruce and Reading centre-back Sean Morrison on loan, with Grayson landing Stoke's Uruguayan international Diego Arismendi on temporary terms. That Bury showdown finished 1-1, the first of 18 draws in 46 league games for Town, who finished fourth, nine points behind the Sheffield United side beaten in the play-off final. Fans always feared Town's difficulty in clinching wins would be costly when it came to earning automatic promotion (they threw away a three-goal advantage in the return stalemate at Bury), and so it proved as Charlton, the side who ended Town's long unbeaten run with a 2-0 victory at The Valley in November, and Sheffield Wednesday claimed the top two places.

The pre-Christmas clash with Wednesday at Hillsborough, when 28,600 watched, has to go down as the match of the season.

Having already chalked up back-to-back hat tricks against Exeter and Preston as well as catching the eye with five goals in Scotland Under 21s' double header against Luxembourg and Austria, Rhodes (right) scored all four goals as Town, having been 2-0 up then 4-2 down, clinched a last-gasp draw.

His dad Andy Rhodes, Wednesday's goalkeeping coach, must have wondered whether to laugh or cry!

The 22-year-old, who won his first full Scotland cap against Cyprus in November, wasn't finished when it came to hefty hauls, for he weighed in with five as Town romped to a 6-0 Friday-night success at Wycombe in front of the Sky cameras in January, then notched another hat trick in the 3-1 at Leyton Orient in April.

His final season's tally was the highest in all four English divisions and third-best in Town's history after Dave Mangnall's 42 in 1931-32 and Sammy Taylor's 41 in 1919-20.

In total, Rhodes now has 85 goals for the club, the eighth-best tally of all time.

Lee Novak provided support with 17, his best return so far, while at the other end, Bennett made the headlines by saving two penalties during the 2-2 draw at Scunthorpe in October, while Jack Hunt (inset) proved himself the club's best defensive prospect.

Jack's the lad in the lead HIGHLY-RATED Jack Hunt played more games than anyone else in Town's promotion campaign.

The exciting right-back, who came through the club's academy system, featured in 50 of the club's 54 games, including the League I play-off final at Wembley.

He also scored one of his three goals for the campaign in the play-off semi-final first leg against MK Dons.

Dependable striker Lee Novak was next in the list with 49 appearances, and he bagged 17 goals alongside Jordan Rhodes.