The Comeback Tour

Good Morning, good afternoon, good evening and welcome to everyone. This blog post marks the comeback for 'TerrierBlog' after almost five years in the wilderness, and good Lord, how things have changed.

On Sunday, 8th April 2012 I wrote a post entitled, 'Play-offs' from a grubby computer in the University library, lamenting the defending of Tom Clarke, and the lack of impact from Diego Arismendi against our big Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Wednesday. I remember sitting in the stands that day and thinking, 'Christ, another play-off defeat to look forward to'.

Things at that time did indeed look bleak, the sacking of Clark looked to have backfired and the style of football had also suffered, BUT, fast-forward almost five years, and what a difference ey? Huddersfield Town currently sit third in the table, managed by a highly regarded German coach, playing continental, fast-flowing football. If only I'd have known that back in 2012.

It hasn't been easy mind, a heart-stopping play-off final shootout against Sheffield United eventually sealed our fate that season, as Steve Simonsen sent his penalty into orbit, Huddersfield Town shot up into the Championship, for the first time in around a decade. All of a sudden exciting names such as Keith Andrews, Kevin Phillips (well, not exactly a new rumour) and Manuel Almunia were been linked with Town. The early signs were promising, we clambered into the top reaches of the league after beating Blackpool away, it was so good, I almost began to believe!

But then, in true Terrier's fashion, we came crashing back down to earth, Simon Grayson was sacked, after 424,312 games without a win, and after insisting on blaring out 'Marching on Together' over the tannoy system at canalside. In stepped Lillis as caretaker, followed by a string of different managers, all slightly improving on each others achievements.

Then, we were left with Chris Powell, a man seemingly at odds with the board to keep hold of his best players and struggling against the tide to keep 'little old huddersfield' in the Championship. The ticket prices rose, and the standard of football plummeted. I am not ashamed to admit, I skipped out on many a match in the Powell regime, as I simply thought, 'if he can't be arsed, neither can I!'

And so, this story of mediocrity and rubbish continued, with me regularly remarking to friends, family and anyone that would listen, "There's no fun in football anymore, my club can never, ever compete with some of the bigger clubs out there", as I was brainwashed into thinking.

Then, it happened, Powell was gone, an unknown German was in charge, results didn't necessarily change overnight, but the style of play did, the outlook of the fans did and the future all of a sudden looked a whole lot brighter.

Now, we sit on the precipice of something great, something noble, magical and unheard of in these parts- we can see promotion to the promised land, forget Rochdale, Shrewsbury and Port Vale, give me, give us, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal!!! Never in my time as a Huddersfield fan have I been so excited, but, as with every fairy tale, our story today starts from the most humblest of places...

Rotherham Away

That's right, the Terrierblog fairy tale starts here, at the New York stadium (wtf?), after putting Brighton, Leeds and QPR to the sword, the terriers must go to Rotherham to continue their march to promotion. The game on Tuesday will be an interesting one, especially with the Manchester City match on the horizon. What does David Wagner do? Prioritise one match over the other, or treat both as equals?

Personally, I believe Wagner will see the match against Rotherham as a chance to rotate the squad and rest some of our more important players before the FA Cup match. With the Millers sitting rock bottom of the league and almost certain of relegation, this is surely the best time to rest some of our players. However, let's have a little look at Rovrum's recent home form;

11th Feb 1-1 Blackburn Rovers
28th Jan 0-1 Barnsley
14th Jan 2-1 Norwich City
29th Dec 1-2 Burton Albion
26th Dec 3-2 Wigan Athletic

This all makes for fairly standard reading for a rock-bottom club, however the one result that stands out there is the 2-1 victory over Norwich in mid January, which highlights that they are not just cannon-fodder. Yes, we should beat Rotherham convincingly and cement our position in the league, but we will need to be at 100%.

Whilst wins over Brighton and Leeds are enormously satisfying and show off our promotion credentials, game like these symbolise a massive test for the squad. Unlike the previous two home games, there is no glamour about a valentines trip to South Yorkshire and no added motivation. This will be a difficult test for Wagner managerially, and for all the players involved. It is imperative that we take full advantage of these type of games and gain as many points as possible.

In Mourinho's first season in charge of Chelsea when they won the league, an away match at Ewood Park was seen as the moment that they really took hold of the league and gained the belief that they could be champions. On paper, Chelsea should have walked that match, but they didn't, they had to battle, fight and scrap for every inch before finally scraping the result that provided the springboard for the rest of their season.

This is the importance of the Rotherham game to us, lose or drop points and this will undo much of the hard work put in by the squad over the past week and a half. Win, however and this will boost the confidence amongst the players and the staff and show that the Huddersfield steam-train is still gathering momentum. Here's what Millers assistant coach Matt Hamshaw has had to say about the game;

"We have to embrace it. This is a difficult game for them and we'll hopefully have a game plan, but hopefully one that can work. It's a game that we can look forward to and one that should excite us really if i'm honest.

They're on a good run and we've not been on a great run but I think we saw an improvement in that second half. We just can't afford to wait as long tomorrow night as did in Saturday's game to get started."

So, I think we can all agree that Rotherham will be up for this right from the very off and we'll have to match their fight and grit, certainly in the first 15 minutes, before hopefully stamping our authority on the match and taking control. I shall be at the match tomorrow evening, much to the displeasure of my fiance! Hopefully I shall be streaming some of the match on periscope, which you can see from my twitter profile (@terrierblog).

I shall be blogging much more regularly now, and will have a post-match blog up within the next couple of days, I certainly won't be leaving it another five years until the next blog, but wow, imagine where we could be by then....