* Zamora scores last minute goal to send QPR to the Premier League

* Promotion worth £134million to QPR as they return to the top flight at first attempt

* QPR had Gary O’Neil sent off midway through the second half

Ageing, written off, derided. It just had to be Bobby Zamora who scored the £134million goal that took QPR back into the Premier League and quite probably saved them from financial ruin.

Having been dominated by Steve McClaren’s youthful and energetic Derby County for 89 minutes, 50 seconds, rickety old QPR and their 33-year-old centre forward only needed one late glimpse to separate the men from the boys.

County skipper Richard Keogh mistimed a clearance straight to the injury-prone striker and he returned it in a flash into the top corner of the net.

Harry Redknapp was besieged on the touchline, owner Tony Fernandes looked as if he’d just escaped a heart attack. With 10 second left, QPR were back in the promised land, and that despite playing the majority of the second-half with only 10 men following Gary O’Neil’s red card. Extraordinary scenes.

For two years, Rangers and Fernandes have rightly received savage criticism as a squad paid more than Borussia Dortmund were relegated and then failed to ignite the Championship.

Zamora was one of the poster-boys for underachievement. He went into yesterday’s showpiece at Wembley having scored four goals in 20 months, though in mitigation he missed four months of this season to recover from a knee operation.

And yet in a split-second, he showed the quality that once won him a couple of England caps and persuaded QPR to spend £6million on him at the start of 2012. His instant left-foot finish had Derby keeper Lee Grant clutching thin air. Keogh was inconsolable for the rest of the afternoon, and possibly all summer.

Zamora is one of 15 players out of contract at Loftus Road this season. It may turn out to be his last game in a Hoops shirt but even if that’s the case his place in the club’s history is now assured.

The club’s latest financial figures reported a loss of £65m. Even by the unreal standards of the Championship play-off final, Rangers needed this result to go their way.

‘I don’t know how we did it,’ admitted a relieved and stunned Redknapp afterwards.

‘It was an amazing finish. We were hanging on and looking to get to extra-time. That was the only hope I could see for us with 10 men, I wanted to keep it tight and get to penalties, I’d be lying if I said otherwise.

‘I was surprised to score! But when Bobby is fit, he is an excellent player.

‘It was just a backs-to-the-wall job before then. I think we defended well with 10 men; Robert Green, Richard Dunne, Nedum Onouha, they all defended for their lives.’

Redknapp embraced Fernandes afterwards. Zamora’s stike has saved both from different types of oblivion.

Derby had finished the regular season in third place, five points ahead of Rangers, and were the better team at Wembley foiled repeatedly by QPR keeper Robert Green, whose own career is back on the up after his World Cup horribilis in 2010.

‘Football is a cruel game,’ said County manager Steve McClaren, who replaced Nigel Clough in September when the club were 14th.

‘We controlled the game, one lapse at the end and we lose. But I’m so proud of the players.

‘It is going to take few days and weeks to recover. We stayed on the field afterwards to applaud QPR and watch them celebrate and pick up the cup, go into the Premier League.

‘We don’t want that kind of hurt again, because it does hurt. Maybe we will try to go straight up next time! But if this team sticks together, it will get stronger.’

Despite a heavy and dramatic downpour as the teams came out, McClaren didn’t emerge with the brolly he infamously used on his last Wembley appearance as England manager in 2007.

The first half was largely forgettable with Lee Mason rightly waving away a Derby penalty appeal when Will Hughes jumped over Richard Dunne the only moment of controversy.

But as the sun peeped out at the start of the second half, the serious action began – and nearly all of it in and around the QPR penalty area.

Green made great saves from Jamie Ward, Craig Bryson and Simon Dawkins. Ward’s goalbound shot was blocked by his own player Chris Martin as Derby outran Rangers and laid siege to the goal.

Derby thought they’d cracked it after an hour. Johnny Russell nicked the ball past Dunne and when his heels were clipped by O’Neil, the Rangers man went after discussion between Mr Probert and his assistant.

County swarmed forward but the Rangers rearguard wouldn’t crack. From the side, McClaren must have rued the good work he did at the start of the season as QPR’s defensive coach before moving to Derby.

As they were pushed back in the closing stages, one thing Rangers could count on was bags of know how with Joey Barton, Karl Henry and Dunne in the side.

And defender Nedum Onouha admitted: ‘With the amount of experience we have in this side, even in adversity we have a second game plan. To get the result feels fantastic. We must love to do things the hard way but it means twice as much now.’

Extra-time looked inevitable until with the seconds ticking down, Derby sat back for the first time. Rangers won a couple of cheap throw-ins, Zamora loitered with intent in the penalty area and when the chance came, he changed history.

—Daily Mail