David Cameron Walker

Archive for the ‘Huddersfield Town’ Category

Grayson is the man for Town

Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

Huddersfield Town have appointed former Blackpool and Leeds United manager Simon Grayson as successor to the sacked Lee Clark. Grayson was dismissed by Leeds chairman Ken Bates on February 1st, and just nineteen days later has moved down the M62 to the Galpharm Stadium. Of course, due to him being a Leeds lad and fan, some Terriers supporters have reservations about him taking over, but I am not one of those fans; I am delighted with the appointment.

For me, there were only two candidates for the job; Grayson, and Sean O’Driscoll. Lots of talk circulated around a return for Neil Warnock, who won promotion via the playoffs in 1995 with Town, but I was uncomfortable with him returning. There is an old adage in football – never go back – and I fear that his reputation among Town fans may have been tarnished somewhat if things had gone badly this time around. Also, he has gone on record saying that he will retire at the end of next season. Hardly a long term appointment!

O’Driscoll was always going to be a tricky appointment, if in fact he was ever on Dean Hoyle’s shortlist in the first place. He is currently employed at Nottingham Forest as a first team coach, and therefore compensation would have to have been paid. The likely outcome, therefore, was to go for an unattached manager. Grayson is definitely the best of those managers. There was a rumour that Phil Brown was going to be given the job, but thankfully our chairman has more sense than that!

Why is Grayson the right man for the job? Simple, really. He has won promotion from League One with both clubs that he has managed. In 2007, his Blackpool side overcame Yeovil Town in the playoff final to gain promotion to the Championship. With Leeds, he went one better and achieved automatic promotion in 2010 after finishing second behind Norwich City. He also achieved a near fifty percent win rate while in charge at Elland Road.

Lee Clark’s dismissal was seen as a shock, as was Grayson’s nearly three weeks earlier. Interestingly, both club statements read very similarly: “With x games still to go, we feel that a new manager will be able to get us promoted.” Blah, blah, blah. On BBC Radio Leeds, Hoyle said the fact that Grayson was a Leeds fan didn’t make any difference and that as soon as he kisses the Town badge during his first game, the fans will take to him!

Yes, he’s a Leeds United fan. Yes, he was Leeds United’s manager until very recently. But none of that matters now. He is now Huddersfield Town’s manager, and all Terrier’s fans everywhere need to get behind him and the team, and let’s all hope he can deliver.

Written by James Bartaby, We Are Going Up’s Huddersfield Town blogger

James tweets at @jamesb5374

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Clark Out, But Who Comes In?

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

Huddersfield Town have sacked their manager Lee Clark, along with his entire backroom staff. Academy manager Mark Lillis will take control of the first team until a new manager is appointed. This has led to opinion being divided amongst Terriers fans, and most pundits and observers are condemning Town Chairman Dean Hoyle for the decision. Let’s face it, it’s not as if Town are in crisis. Fourth in the league at the time of the dismissal, and looking good for at least a play-off place.

However, this might be the problem. The play-offs. Clark has led Town to a play-off finish for each of the last two seasons, and then seen his side beaten. Hoyle has made it quite clear that promotion is a must this season, and he has ploughed an awful lot of money in for a League One club. As it stands, after defeat to Sheffield United in Clark’s final match in charge, the play-offs now seem the most likely outcome for Town, and Hoyle must feel that Clark doesn’t have what it takes to get a team promoted this way.

The whole situation is a mess. Reading the comments on Twitter and message boards, the rumours are that Hoyle wasn’t even in the country and Clark got sacked in a thirty-second phone call from a board member. If this is true, it is a little shoddy to say the least. Lee Clark has reportedly turned down job offers from higher division clubs, most notably Leicester City, to stay at Town, and then to be treated like this is going to sting. There are also stories circulating that Clark has been applying for jobs without the club’s knowledge, and that this has angered the board. He has been heavily linked with the vacancy at neighbours Leeds United, and the rumour mill suggests that he was blocked from applying for it. Whatever has happened, and more will no doubt be revealed over the coming days, it would appear that relations between Clark and Hoyle have deteriorated rapidly.

According to the official statement on Huddersfield’s website, Dean Hoyle said the following:

“This was a very difficult decision; one not taken lightly or in response to one result. Concerns have been raised over recent weeks.”

This surely means that the club have someone lined up to take the job? Or at least someone in mind? And if he’s been thinking about it for several weeks, why wait until a fortnight after the winter transfer window has closed to pull the trigger? And why let Clark sign three players during said window?! The good thing is that there is time to get a new man in, as Town don’t have a game until February 25th due to the FA Cup.

So, onto the topic of who will replace Clark as manager of Huddersfield Town. Two former Terriers managers, Steve Bruce and Neil Warnock, have been linked, although neither will get it in my opinion. Simon Grayson, Billy Davies, and Phil Brown are also on the shortlist, according to reports, and Sky Sports are running a story on their website linking MK Dons boss Karl Robinson with the job, but I don’t put much credence in that particular rumour.

Out of those listed, Simon Grayson, would be my first choice. I would ideally like Sean O’Driscoll, but I am not too sure he would leave his relatively new post at Nottingham Forest. However, the lure of another chance as a manager might be too good to turn down should it present itself. Grayson, though, would be favourite for me. Yes, he managed our most hated rivals, but he did a magnificent job at Elland Road, taking the club from League One to the higher echelons of the Championship. He was working in difficult circumstances too, with players being sold out from under him and not being given much money to spend. At a forward thinking club with an ambitious young chairman, he might fulfil his potential.

Imagine the headlines: Huddersfield and Leeds swap managers!

I was initially shocked and saddened by the sacking, but the right appointment would alleviate any disappointment among Terriers fans. Let’s just hope Dean Hoyle has got this decision right and, more importantly, gets the replacement right.

Written by James Bartaby, We Are Going Up’s Huddersfield Town blogger

James tweets at @jamesb5374

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Please Keep Off The Rhodes

Friday, December 30th, 2011

As a football fan there is no guarantee of success, you can watch your team for years and only experience very fleeting moments of actual joy and a lot of misery or in many cases just many average mid-table finishes that don’t offer either emotion. You might never see your team pick up a trophy or even reach a final and there is little in football that is guaranteed.

However one thing that every football fan will experience is that every once in a while you will witness a player who is simply a cut above the level you are watching.

At the Galpharm stadium we have had the luck to watch a few of these players in recent seasons after many barren seasons, the glorious skill of Anthony Pilkington, the speed and composure of Lee Peltier and most recently and most consistently: the lethal finishing of Jordan Rhodes.

The one thing that all these players have in common is that they have or will leave Huddersfield to play at a higher level, and the prospect of Rhodes leaving will occupy the thoughts of Huddersfield fans for the month of January.

The club have said they won’t sell, and you have to hope that this isn’t just placating the fans now before selling on the last day of the transfer window. I do have full faith in the Huddersfield board and think they will resist any offers that come their way in January, however; I do fear that they will be delaying the inevitable.

This delay is however essential as Rhodes is vital at the moment, and I would personally love to see him finish what he has started at Huddersfield and finish the season earning the club a promotion that he has worked as hard as anyone to achieve.

From day one Rhodes has been a goal-scorer and a match-winner with the predatory ability to finish the single chance he gets in a game. It became obvious very early on that we had made a bargain purchase when we bought Jordan from Ipswich, a decision that I’m sure Roy Keane and Ipswich fans regret, and within minutes of his debut Rhodes had scored.

This was the first of many, and what became obvious very early was not only was this a player with enormous ability but that he was a hardworking lad with an excellent grounding and superb work ethic. He worked hard for the team, took a physical battering from burly league one defenders, and never once did you hear him complain. This was a young man learning the game the old-fashioned way, and honing his craft as a striker.

After two seasons of goal scoring exploits there was a little talk that Crystal Palace were thinking of a bid for him as he had fallen out of favour a little last season due to Lee Clark choosing to play a lone striker.  

However he didn’t leave and all the hard work paid off, always dangerous and scoring goals over the previous seasons, he’d suddenly found a different level.

After a slow start this season where Lee Novak took the headlines with some early goals, Jordan has found his scoring boots to an incredible degree. All of a sudden, he was scoring goals for fun, and he wasn’t just scoring for Town he was banging them in for Scotland under 21’s too, his hot run of form even earned him a call up for the senior squad.

Against Sheffield Wednesday, he was lethal, proving that this isn’t a flash in the pan, he has scored numerous hat-tricks and has seemingly taken every chance that has come his way.

He is arguably the best striker outside the Premier League currently, and although many clubs will try and tempt him this January, it will be of huge benefit to both the player and the club if he stays.

So often players leave a club in haste, choose the wrong move and then suddenly go from being a sought after player to an expensive benchwarmer. Jordan has a great chance now to score 40 goals in a season and also earn a promotion to put on his CV. In a promotion push, a regular goal scorer can make an enormous amount of difference, and so Huddersfield must bend over backwards to keep him happy this month.

The teams who might want him can wait and Huddersfield will not get many better chances to push for promotion with a striker who is the deadliest in the country right now.

The month is going to be an incredibly long one, but Huddersfield hold all the cards and have a truly special talent on their hands, if they hold firm, and do what so many teams have failed to do before them,  they might be celebrating hugely come May.

Written by Charlie Johnson, Charlie tweets at @footballcharlie

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Hands Off!

Saturday, November 19th, 2011

Over the last few weeks, Huddersfield Town fans have endured media and press reports linking manager Lee Clark with the managerial vacancy at Leicester City. Thankfully, nothing came of it and Clark remains at The Galpharm. However stories are now emerging linking Scottish international striker Jordan Rhodes with a move away from the club. While on one hand it is nice to have other clubs covet Town players and the manager as it shows they are doing something right, it isn’t half annoying!

Lee Clark has recently said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph that he had talks with Leicester City, but opted to stay at Huddersfield as he has unfinished business. He also said that he owed a lot to club owner Dean Hoyle, who could easily have got rid of him after a second failed promotion attempt. Currently, Clark has overseen a phenomenal unbeaten run of forty two regular league games, equalling the great Nottingham Forest side of the late seventies under the legendary Brian Clough. In fact, Clark has delivered a better run, as he has 24 wins and 18 draws, while Forest got 21 wins and 21 draws.

Unbeaten run aside though, it is surprising he was apparently Leicester City’s first choice as Sven’s replacement. He has only been a manager for three years, having been appointed at The Galpharm in December 2008. He has failed to win promotion in his two full seasons in charge and his only real achievement so far is that unbeaten run. Impressive though the run is, does that mean he should be favourite for a club pushing for promotion to the Premier League? Don’t get me wrong, I am a massive Clark fan and hope he stays for years to come, but it did surprise me just how much he was linked with The Foxes.

He definitely made the right decision in terms of his career though. Had he had gone to Leicester and failed to get them promoted, he would undoubtedly have been shown the door, and that could have had a huge detrimental effect on his fledgling managerial career. There is no guarantee that Hoyle will dispense with him if Town don’t achieve promotion.

There is no surprise Jordan Rhodes is being linked with a January move after his recent form and Town fans everywhere will be praying he does not leave. He has recently become a full Scottish international, making his debut as a substitute in their away game to Cyprus last week. He has also become the Under-21′s joint all-time top scorer this season, netting six times.

The big worry about the stories linking Rhodes with a move surround the fee. Certain reports have said he has a release clause in his contract of just £2million. Town have refuted those claims, with Lee Clark telling the Daily Record that amount wouldn’t even buy Rhodes’ socks! It is easy to agree with Clark on that one, Rhodes has to be worth a lot more than that fee, especially if he scores the goals to fire Town into the Championship. Ironically, perhaps both manager and player’s futures at Huddersfield depend on the goals Rhodes scores between now and the end of the season.

Written by James Bartaby, We Are Going Up’s Huddersfield Town blogger

James tweets at @jamesb5374

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All Rhodes lead to Scotland

Thursday, October 13th, 2011

He is Huddersfield Town’s main man, the Terriers’ biggest goal threat who recently notched his 50th goal for the club. Now Jordan Rhodes has announced himself on the international stage with his first goals for the Scotland Under 21′s.. He has now played five times for the U21′s with five goals to his name. All five strikes have come in his last two appearances – a hat-trick in a 5-1 win in Luxembourg and  both goals in a 2-2 draw with Austria.

It’s a cracking return for the 21-year-old Oldham born striker and he must now be on the verge of a call up to the full national team. In fact there is a train of thought that if the U21 games had been last week, he could easily have been on the plane to Spain with the senior Scottish team.

It is reward for a superb career at Huddersfield during which time he has scored 51 times in just over two seasons. Lee Clark had chased Rhodes, then at Ipswich Town, throughout summer 2009 before finally persuading Roy Keane to part with the player for the now obligatory “undisclosed fee” and what a signing he has been for the club. With an almost one-in-two strikerate, he is easily the most prolific striker at the club, and one of the most prolific in the Football League.

This season he has scored six times in ten appearances but funnily enough all of them have been braces, against Colchester United and Brentford in League One – plus a double against Cardiff City in the Carling Cup. Rhodes’ first against Brentford was his fiftieth for the club, and came against a team he had a loan spell at from Ipswich in 2009. During his time at Griffin Park, he netted seven goals in fourteen games. Again, an impressive strikerate of one in two.

He is certainly destined to play at a much higher level, and whether that is with Huddersfield Town remains to be seen. If the club don’t get promotion this season it will be extremely hard to keep hold of him and even if they go up, Lee Clark is sure to be fending off potential suitors during the summer. He is a top-quality striker who can definitely rise up the divisions and keep banging the goals in.

As for international honours, he must be in with a great chance of a full Scotland call up sooner rather than later. The current squad has includes Craig Mackail-Smith, a striker who was capped whilst a frequent goalscorer in League One for Peterborough United. Rhodes has to fancy his chances of breaking into the squad in the next couple of years, I just hope he’s a Terrier when he does!

Written by James Bartaby, We Are Going Up’s Huddersfield Town blogger

James tweets at @jamesb5374

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The next ten games….

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

As an exiled Terrier living in Greater London, I don’t get to too many Town matches, but I did make my seasonal trip to Griffin Park recently to see Lee Clark’s boys dismantle Uwe Rosler’s Brentford, running out comfortable 4-0 winners. This result extended the club’s record unbeaten run to 36 league games. Some fans dispute it because of the playoff final defeat last season, but it doesn’t count as it was a cup game! There were no points on offer, so it can’t be brought into the equation when talking about this feat. Otherwise, you would be able to say that the unbeaten run ended with defeat at Cardiff in the Carling Cup, a competition which is also run by the Football League. Anyway, I digress!

They are ten matches away from going a full season’s worth of league games without losing, a remarkable feat if they pull it off. I want to take a look at the run in more detail and offer up some comparisons between this season and last. In the 36 games, there have been twenty wins and sixteen draws, totalling 76 points taken. Most Town fans have said that the team have drawn too many games during the run and that stat seems to back the claim up. However, if you look at the League One table after 36 games last season, Town had 63 points, some thirteen less than they have taken while on this epic run.

Of course, statistics can be used to prove any point, and I don’t see the world through Blue and White tinted glasses. Town have drawn a lot away from home because in a number of those draws they were one or two goals ahead and ended up throwing the points away. The  first game in the run was away to Carlisle United where the Terriers drew 2-2 after being two goals up. It has happened so often, it is starting to become routine!

Comparing the league table after 36 games last season with the current run is somewhat erroneous, as the two overlap, but it was only to serve as an indication. If you look at the tables from this and last season at this point, it makes for interesting reading. Last season after eleven games, Brighton were already top with 22 points, whereas this year Charlton have 27 at the summit. As for Town, this season they currently sit fifth with 21 points from eleven matches, four points and one place better off than last season. Further proof to back up the claim Town have drawn too many games comes thanks to Sheffield Wednesday, who are currently one place and one point above. They have lost three games already this season but are where they are thanks to winning all their home games.

Looking ahead to Huddersfield’s next ten games, what are the chances of maintaining this run? There are only two obvious games where you would maybe expect us them to come unstuck – away games at Charlton Athletic and Sheffield Wednesday and a tricky home match against Preston North End. Of course all games are difficult, but there are home games against Stevenage, Walsall, Notts County and Bournemouth, which are all winnable. Trips to Exeter, Yeovil and Scunthorpe complete the next ten, and if Lee Clark’s men could get seven wins and a draw, they would be right on track.

Last season, Huddersfield accrued 87 points, which would have sealed automatic promotion for each of the seventeen previous seasons, but for Southampton’s excellent form. That same total should be enough to achieve at least second place this time around. Whether Town can reach that target is another matter. I believed at the start of the season that there wasn’t going to be a team that would run away with the league and I stand by that even though Charlton have opened up a five point gap. Instead, there is a lot more strength in depth this year than in previous seasons and at least six clubs in with a genuine shout of automatic promotion, funnily enough they are all in the top six already. It could go right to the final day of the season.

As for Huddersfield Town, most fans expect this to be Lee Clark’s last attempt at promotion before chairman Dean Hoyle decides he has to try something new. Clark has done well, improving the club’s position each season, but two successive play-off heartbreaks have piled the pressure on this season. Whether he and his team can finally deliver on their potential remains to be seen.

Written by James Bartaby, We Are Going Up’s Huddersfield Town blogger

James tweets at @jamesb5374

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Glass Half Empty Or Half Full?

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

Huddersfield Town have now played three games in this season’s League One, and have drawn all three.

It’s not a brilliant start for the team that many people, including me, have predicted as winners of the division come next May. As the title suggests, there are two ways of looking at it. On the one hand, we are stretching our unbeaten run in regular league games. This run now stands at a very impressive 28, the last defeat coming at Southampton way back on December 28th 2010. On the other hand, of course, we haven’t won in the league yet this season, and if you count the playoffs last season, that is now six draws and a defeat in the last seven games. Our last league win was the 3-2 victory at Brighton, who were already champions at the time, so you could argue they had taken their foot off the gas.

All this makes the weekend’s game at home to Colchester United a must win game, even at this early stage of the season. Town are now already six points behind the leaders, and while it is way too early to start worrying too much, Brighton showed last season that it is possible to get clear early on and stay top for the whole season. Now, just to add to the pessimism side of things, the last time Town won a home league game at 3pm on a Saturday was also all the way back before last Christmas on December 11th! The team they beat? Again, it was Brighton, a 2-1 victory.

One thing is true in football, though: all runs, good or bad, have to come to an end sometime. So, we will probably either lose, and end our record unbeaten run, or we will win and kick start our season. Looking at last season’s match with The U’s, it took place on a Saturday, at three o’clock. And the score? 0-0. A fourth consecutive draw on the cards then! The most annoying thing is that we’ve taken the lead three times so far this season, but not held on to it. Obviously that has to change, and quickly.

There is a few possible reasons for the winless start. There have been eight new players coming in over the summer. Two of those were on loan last season, and have returned to the club, so that leaves six new faces that have to be integrated into the club and the team. It can take time for new players to gel with their new colleagues, and I personally think this is the main reason for the slow start. There are fans who have been losing faith in the management for a while now, even though the team are unbeaten in so long. The main grumble seems to be the constant change in team selection and formation, which obviously isn’t going to get the best out of your players. Having said that, Lee Clark has steered the team to within ninety minutes of promotion. In the second half of last season, it did seem that there was more consistency in tactics, and the general consensus was that we should make a real push for a top two finish this season.

To answer the question in the title, then: my glass is half full, I am fully behind Lee Clark and his players, and am sure Saturday will bring our first win of the league campaign. Our season will be bang on track then and we won’t look back in our charge into the Championship! I hope…

Written by James Bartaby, We Are Going Up’s Huddersfield Town Blogger

James tweets at @jamesb5374

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Third Time Lucky?

Friday, July 29th, 2011

The upcoming season is vital for Huddersfield Town. After playoff heartbreak in the last two seasons, it is do or die in 2011-12. Manager Lee Clark has come so close, especially last season, to getting promotion to the Championship, and you might even say that this will be his last chance before chairman Dean Hoyle decides that he has to try something new.

On the transfer front, two big players have left The Galpharm. Lee Peltier signed for Sven’s Foxes, and Anthony Pilkington joined Premier League new boys Norwich City. Both transfers represented huge profits on the fees originally paid for them by Clark, which certainly looks good on not only Lee Clark’s CV as a manager who can develop young talent and turn a profit for his employer, but also makes the club attractive to young players looking to get a good start in the game.

Incoming, Town have signed seven players so far, five permanently and two on loan. The most exciting of the new arrivals is that of 21 year old attacking midfielder Donal McDermott, who has joined from Manchester City on a two year deal. He is well known to Terriers fans, as he played a starring role in last season’s playoff semi final for Bournemouth against Town, scoring a twenty five yard screamer to level the tie in the first leg.

Also joining up with the squad are defender Calum Woods, midfielders Tommy Miller and Oscar Gobern, centre back Liam Cooper on loan from Hull City, and Danny Ward for a “six figure sum” from Bolton Wanderers. The winger enjoyed a superb loan spell at Huddersfield in the second half of last season, and his signing could be one of the best bits of business that the club do this summer. Damien Johnson, who was on loan from Plymouth Argyle last season, has rejoined on a season long loan from Home Park. His continued presence will add competition and strength to central midfield.

So who are all these players? Well, Woods is a product of Liverpool’s famous youth academy, but he failed to make the grade and was signed by Dunfermline Athletic in 2006 on a free transfer. He went on to make well over a hundred appearances in his five years with The Pars before moving to West Yorkshire, also on a free transfer. He helped Dunfermline win the Scottish First Division last season, and with it promotion to the SPL. Town will be hoping for him to bring similar success to the club!

Oscar Gobern is a twenty year old, left footed midfielder. He stands at 6’3” tall, so should bring some much needed strength and dominance to midfield, something which has been lacking on occasion in the past. He prefers to play in the centre, but can also play out wide, although being so tall, he is likely to be more effective in the middle of the park. Also in midfield, highly experienced 32 year old Tommy Miller has joined on a free from Sheffield Wednesday. With over 400 games to his name he will bring a cool head and experience of the Championship and League One which will be invaluable to the younger players like Gobern and McDermott.

The final signing to date is the loan capture of teenage centre back Liam Cooper on a season long loan from Hull City. A Scottish international at U17 and U19 level, he will provide cover for the first choice central defenders Peter Clarke and Jamie “Boom Boom” McCombe.

So, that’s the transfer business up to date. What about the competition? Well, in the past few seasons there has always been one or two teams that were obvious favourites to go up. The likes of Leeds Utd, Leicester City, Southampton, Nottingham Forest and Norwich City have all been in the third tier in recent years. This season, though, there isn’t an opposition side that I would say are definitely going to finish above us this season.

Sure, the likes of Preston North End and both Sheffield clubs will probably beg to differ, but I genuinely feel we are the best bet for going up automatically, maybe even as champions.

Time will tell. Bring on the new season!

Written by James Bartaby, We Are Going Up’s Huddersfield Town Blogger

James tweets at @jamesb5374

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Posted in Huddersfield Town, League One | 4 Comments »