SKY pundit Andy Hinchcliffe was breathless in his praise for the non-stop midfielder.

“It’s the 92nd minute of the game and Luke O’Brien is sprinting like it’s the first.”

The Huddersfield skipper has provided the engine in their drive to tomorrow's Championship play-off final against Nottingham Forest. Nobody deserves it more to lead their team out at Wembley.

City fans tuning into the end-of-season drama will not have been surprised. They knew from the start what O’Brien was all about.

The 2018/2019 campaign will be remembered for all the wrong reasons at Valley Parade – except for one.

The emergence of a tenacious young lad in the middle of the park whose commitment and endeavour put others with far more experience around him to shame.

Amid the rancour and recriminations of self-inflicted relegation, nobody could point a finger at the raw loanee who quickly became one of the first names on the team sheet.

He had forged a reputation in the toughest of starting environments and has never looked back.

But O’Brien’s story started much earlier for City academy manager Neil Matthews.

Their association began at Huddersfield when this slight 10-year-old arrived having just been released by Manchester United.

O’Brien impressed Matthews as a left-sided player but so did others at such an early age group. But his talent began to emerge by the under-13s stage.

“I did a lot of work with the A licence and more in-depth analysis and he turned out to be the key player in the group,” said Matthews, who had two spells with Huddersfield’s youth academy.

“Looking back, Lewis was very good one v one and a lot of attributes around his psychology were very good.

“I wouldn’t have known at that time that he would have made the progress that he has. You’re never quite sure.

“But from 13 onwards, he started to really stand out.

“He’s always been a thinker. You could speak to Lewis after a game and he could recite all the details of what had happened, which I found remarkable.

“I played a good level myself but he was far better than anything I could recall.

“He studied the game when he was playing. There were times when he wouldn’t switch off because he was over-thinking when he was 15 or 16.

“But he’s obviously lost that now because of the concentration that you require.

“He was very calm and wasn’t fazed by anything. He was a small player, a late developer, so he learned a lot in terms of resilience.”

O’Brien’s arrival at City on deadline day in August 2018 was greeted with disapproval and hostility on social media.

When Michael Collins was then sacked within a couple of days, it showed the huge challenge facing a player who had never kicked a ball in senior football.

You could speak to Lewis after a game and he could recite all the details of what had happened

But David Hopkin threw him straight in – and O’Brien never looked back with 46 appearances; a remarkably mature and cool head while all around were losing theirs.

Matthews added: “When he came to Bradford, he didn’t necessarily expect to play straight away. He just thought he’d get some game time off the bench.

“But he obviously ended up playing all the time.

“He just loves football and was grateful to be involved. He’s very humble, well brought up from a good family, and thrived in that environment.

“Bradford’s obviously a great place for a young player to earn their wings if you get the chance with the fan base and everything else.”

O’Brien struck a chord with head of coaching and player development Martin Drury, Hopkin’s number two at that time, because he was always the last player off the training field. His enthusiasm was infectious.

The Boxing Day visit to Sunderland that season in front of a whopping 46,039 crowd at the Stadium of Light remains the biggest audience that he has played in front of until Wembley.

“It was a bit ironic because Sunderland was one of the few games he’d missed as a 14-year-old with me,” said Matthews.

“His dad came to see me. He’s a big Man City fan and they were on the brink of winning the title.

“Lewis was one of those who came to every training session and match. It had to be something very important for him to miss one.

“His dad just asked if he could miss that game because he wanted his son with him to see Man City win it.

“Then Lewis goes back a few years later and plays against them in the first team for Bradford in front of all those fans.

“You don’t know those things at the time but it wouldn’t have worried him at all playing in front of 46,000. What an incredible experience.”

O’Brien’s stats that so impressed the TV experts in Huddersfield’s play-off semi-final win over Luton underlined his importance to the team.

Nine of 11 ground duels won, three out of four completed dribbles, 100 per cent success with long passes, three fouls won, three interceptions – not sexy reading maybe but proof of what he delivers.

Now O’Brien stands on the brink of taking those battling qualities into the Premier League. Matthews certainly hopes so.

“Huddersfield have had a wonderful season and again he’s been driving things on in the centre of midfield.

“He’s strong on both sides of the game, in and out of possession he’s totally committed. You’ve got that energy which fans love to see.

“I’m sure if they do step up to the Premier League he will be able to deal with that.

“He’s got that wonderful mentality that he wants to learn every day and will always work as hard as he can. He’s a good person to have around and a terrific footballer.”