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Wells windfall awaits Bradford

Big chance: Wells will be hoping for Premier League football next season with Huddersfield

Bradford City will follow Huddersfield United’s progress in the Sky Bet promotion play-offs with keen interest as they will benefit financially if Nahki Wells’s side get promoted.

Bradford have a clause in Wells’s transfer deal three years ago guaranteeing them £250,000 in add-ons should he gain promotion to the Premier League with Huddersfield.

Wells became the first Bermudian to be sold for a million pounds when he signed for Huddersfield for a then club-record fee of £1.3 million in January 2014.

Bradford have already collected an additional £325,000 from Huddersfield for goals and appearances as part of the Wells deal. A clause in the transfer deal also guarantees Bradford a percentage of any subsequent transfer fees should Wells be sold by Huddersfield.

Last season Wells was the top scorer for Huddersfield with 15 goals, following that up with ten goals this season in 44 appearances.

He is three matches away from becoming the third Bermudian behind Kyle Lightbourne and Shaun Goater to play in the Premier League (Clyde Best played for West Ham in the old First Division).

Huddersfield will play Sheffield Wednesday in the play-offs semi-finals, with Huddersfield at home in the first leg on Sunday. The winners of the tie will meet Reading or Fulham in the final at Wembley Stadium on May 29.

Already the second-leg match at Hillsborough has been sold out with Huddersfield fans getting up early on Wednesday morning to cue for the 2,000 tickets available for the away supporters.

Tickets went on sale two days ago and within four hours they were all purchased. All the Championship play-off matches are being televised on SportsMax.

Huddersfield have been boosted by the return to fitness of top scorer Elias Kachunga in time for the two Wednesday matches.

“He trained yesterday and today 100 per cent with no problems,” David Wagner, the team’s head coach, told the Huddersfield Daily Examiner.

Wagner, too, has encouraged his squad to seize the moment and deliver over the next couple of weeks.

“I’ve told the players that it is time to find some new legends for Huddersfield Town. They can become those over the next weeks,” he said.

“There is no better moment than this and this is the reason why the players have worked their socks off all season.

“Now they have the opportunity to be involved in the biggest games of the season, maybe even the biggest games of their careers so far.

“All the teams in the play-offs deserve to be there, ourselves included, and everyone at the club is very excited.

“We might be the underdog, but we like this position. The town has a special feeling and this will be the case on Sunday. We remain humble, but we are also very ambitious. Huddersfield Town have waited 45 years for this opportunity and now we will try to use it.

“We will focus on ourselves, but we respect the quality of Sheffield Wednesday. It is exactly what you would expect to face in the play-offs.”

Bradford are involved in promotion play-offs themselves and after a semi-final victory over Fleetwood Town, they are now just 90 minutes away from securing Championship football next season for the first time since 2004.

Bradford will meet Millwall in the League One play-off final on May 20.

n Reggie Lambe is another Bermudian hoping for promotion as Carlisle United meet Exeter City in their League Two play-off semi-finals.

Lambe was an unused substitute in their 3-2 win over Exeter last weekend in their final league match which assured them of the final play-off spot. Now they will meet Exeter, who finished one place ahead of them, twice to determine who will reach the play-off final against either Blackpool or Luton Town. The first leg will be played on Sunday.