Mark Lawn can recall the exact moment when he knew that Bradford City were finally going up.

“It was the first minute of added time,” he smiles. “At that point, I turned to Julian (Rhodes) and said that even we can’t mess this up.

“Even if Northampton got one back, they wouldn’t have time to kick off twice and score again.

“Just before that their big lad had bundled over one of ours, almost knocking ten bells out of him. The ref gave the free-kick but I was still panicking at that stage.

“We’re 3-0 up and I still wasn’t thinking it was over.”

Usually one to tell it like it is, the joint-chairman was surprisingly reluctant to celebrate too soon at Wembley.

As a fan first and foremost, Lawn had put up with too much disappointment to count the Bantams’ chickens – even leading so comfortably against opponents who had not mustered a single shot in anger.

He said: “I can tell you when their first, and only, shot on target was – after 93 minutes and 41 seconds. That might have been a cross as well but Jon (McLaughlin) picked it out of the air and Don Goodman on Sky decided to be kind.

“But it wasn’t until about the 85th minute that our supporters started to sing ‘we are going up’. That’s just years and years of being a Bradford fan!”

Lawn’s reticence was evident at half-time after the most one-sided 45 minutes at Wembley since City were on the wrong end of the Capital One Cup final.

His niece had brought that up when Nahki Wells made it 3-0 just before the half hour. “They are being Swansea-ed!” she shouted to her uncle across the Royal Box. But still Lawn refused to let his guard drop.

He said: “My son-in-law’s a Liverpool fan and had all sorts of bets on us. He ended up winning £525. He kept telling me it was a banker bet. Before the game and again at half-time, it’s a banker bet.

“But all I could think of was Milan in the Champions League. They were 3-0 up at half-time and look what Liverpool did to them.

“After 66 minutes, he tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘we were 3-3 by now’. These (Northampton) weren’t Liverpool – and they don’t have a Steven Gerrard!

“But it was a more relaxed atmosphere than the cup. We knew what we were doing and it helped us.

“Mr (Aidy) Boothroyd tried to play a few mind games by saying we were wary of going back. But our players knew exactly what they were going to do out there – and they did it inside the first half hour.

“Northampton got measured up for their Wembley suits, they went on Soccer AM – we didn’t. Phil let that happen. We just went down there to do a job. To borrow an American phrase, in the first half the team were absolutely awesome. In the second, it was very professional without rubbing their noses in it.”

Ten days on and everything about the day remains fresh in Lawn’s memory. From the moment he was recognised by the car park attendant – “usual space, sir” – to the emotional post-match appearance on the side of the pitch pushing his wheelchair-bound wife Yvonne.

Lawn said: “I was a bit choked up on the pitch. I still get a bit teary-eyed when I talk about it. But seeing the team walking up the steps to pick up the trophy was just sheer elation. I grabbed hold of Jonesy (Gary Jones) and just kept hugging him. I didn’t want to let go.

“We’ve had a lot of bad times as a football club and it’s great that we’ve finally done this. It’s fantastic to go round Bradford and see smiles on the faces again.”

Everyone, it seems, have had their hands on the winning trophy. The chocolate fingerprints might need some explaining to the Football League – one of Lawn’s grandchildren posed inside it for a family picture – but City are happy to share their joy with the wider public.

Lawn said: “We took it to Valley Parade on the Saturday night and a lot of fans came back and had a beer with us. Everybody had their picture taken – that wouldn’t happen at a lot of clubs.

“I even brought the trophy for Sunday lunch at the Flappit (pub in Keighley) for the locals going up there. Word got round because people kept coming in to take a picture but I felt sorry for the owner because they could have stopped for a beer at least!

“But it just shows that Bradford City are a community club. We’re not stand-offish.”