David Cameron Walker

Posts Tagged ‘Huddersfield Town’

Town go for Robins

Friday, February 15th, 2013

Huddersfield Town have finally appointed a new manager, with Mark Robins taking the hot seat three weeks to the day after Simon Grayson was sacked. Robins joins after leaving his job at Coventry City, where he had been in charge for just five months. In that short time though, he took the Sky Blues from the League One relegation zone to play-off contenders, taking 44 points from his 25 games in charge.

He has signed a rolling contract at the John Smiths Stadium, which strikes me as a bit odd from his point of view. For Huddersfield Town, it’s a great deal, as chairman Dean Hoyle won’t be faced with a hefty compensation bill if it doesn’t work out. For Robins, it’s a strange one. He was five months into a three year contract at the Ricoh Arena, so to ditch that security for the uncertainty of a rolling deal seems a little odd. Unless, of course, he will earn more in a year at Town than he would in three years at City! Either that, or he feels as though he had to leave City after expressing his desire to join Town.

Hoyle always maintained that he wouldn’t rush into an appointment, and the fact that he has taken three weeks suggests that he is finally happy with the chosen candidate. After all, he has paid a “six figure sum” to release Robins from his Coventry contract. And considering some of the managers that were linked to the club are out of work (Adkins, Coyle, Nicky Butt), he must be confident that Robins is his man, especially after paying somewhere between a hundred grand and a quid short of a million for his services!

There is no doubting Robins’ credentials. He did an outstanding job at Rotherham, almost leading them to promotion in 2008-09 despite starting the season with a seventeen point deduction. He spent two and a half years at the club, before moving to South Yorkshire rivals Barnsley, where it’s fair to say that things didn’t go quite as smoothly. Having said that, he did keep the Tykes in the Championship, but he resigned at the end of the 2010-11 season, citing differences with the board as the reason for his departure.

He was out of work for sixteen months before Coventry took a chance on him earlier this season, and he has shown the potential that was evident in his time at Rotherham. Thirteen wins and five draws have followed from his twenty five matches in charge, and he has also taken the club to the area final of the Football League Trophy, and a glamour tie at Arsenal in the League Cup, not to mention a trip to White Hart Lane in the FA Cup. City are understandably furious that Robins has left, considering he was out of work for a considerable amount of time before they hired him.

He has plenty of experience in the dugout, with over 250 games to his name, and a very decent win ratio of just over 40%. His first game in charge will be in front of the ITV cameras on Sunday, when Town host Premier League side Wigan Atheltic in the FA Cup fifth round. It would be a hell of a start to his tenure if he led the club into the quarter final for the first time in over forty years!

So, how do I feel about the appointment? Erm, well, a little bit “meh” to be honest. I mean, it’s not exactly an appointment that gets the pulse racing. I’m not overcome with excitement like I might have been with, say, Nigel Adkins. But then I’m not completely outraged like I would have been if Gary Megson had got the job! Having said that, I am now completely behind him, as he is now one of ours. It might be a good thing that it’s not a particularly high profile appointment; there is less hype around the appointment, and hopefully he can just go about his job quietly, and get us up the Championship table.

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

James tweets at @jamesb5374

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Posted in Championship, Featured, Huddersfield Town | No Comments »

Shut That Door! On Your Way Out!

Friday, January 25th, 2013

Huddersfield Town chairman Dean Hoyle has seen fit to dispense with the services of manager Simon “Larry” Grayson, with the Terriers dropping like a stone in the Championship table. Grayson was in charge for just eleven months, overseeing forty nine matches in that time. Despite delivering the promotion that Hoyle so desperately wanted, Grayson’s team only won seventeen matches, a win percentage of just 34%.

Grayson’s dismissal doesn’t come as a surprise considering the terrible run of form and performances of late. The team have not won in twelve league matches, although they did win at Charlton in the FA Cup third round. They now sit in eighteenth place in the Championship, with a seven point cushion between themselves and the bottom three. Now, if you’d said to me at the start of the season that with eighteen games to go we would be in this position, I would have gladly taken it. As a newly promoted side, I, and the vast majority of Town fans, was under no illusions about how tough the division would be. However, considering the start to the season, and the horrific run we are in, the sacking was somewhat inevitable I’m afraid.

The big rumour doing the rounds amongst supporters is obviously regarding Grayson’s successor. The main name in said rumours is that of one Nigel Adkins. He of course was harshly sacked by Southampton recently, and is the man most Terriers’ supporters, including myself, want in the home dugout at the John Smiths Stadium. Whether Adkins will want to jump straight back in is another matter, not to mention what the conditions of his severance say.

When Hoyle sacked Lee Clark last February, he appointed Grayson within five days, leading most people to assume that he dispensed with Clark because Grayson was available. The same is now being applied to our current situation. Is Adkins interested, and is that then the reason that the trigger was pulled this week?

Grayson’s last match in charge was last Saturday’s 4-0 humbling at Watford, yet he was only sacked five days later. This would indicate that the chairman has someone lined up ready to come in, just like he did last February. Otherwise why wait nearly a week to make the decision? Surely he would have done it after the match or on Sunday/Monday morning rather than wait until two days before the next match?

When Clark was sacked, Grayson was my second choice to take over, with Sean O’Driscoll the first choice. So when O’Driscoll was canned by Nottingham Forest on Boxing Day, I was kind of hoping Hoyle would have acted then and got the former Doncaster manager on board. Now, Adkins is my clear favourite, with Owen Coyle in second place. Funnily enough, that is how the bookies currently have it too. Maybe they are just the two best managers who are unemployed currently! Paolo Di Canio is high up in the odds too, but I am hoping that doesn’t come to fruition!

Whoever takes the job, it’s a really good one. A decent club with a brilliant stadium, and a chairman who is a lifelong fan, and isn’t afraid to back his manager in the transfer market. Yes, his two managerial dismissals while at the helm could be questioned, there is no doubt he will give a manager a chance to build at the club. He gave Clark more than three years in the job, so his reputation shouldn’t be tarnished by only giving Grayson eleven months.

Sometimes things just don’t work out the way you hope they will. Both Adkins and Coyle are hungry young gaffers, and I’m sure both would do very well with the club. If either one get the job, I would be a very happy Terrier!

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

James tweets at @jamesb5374

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Posted in Championship, Featured, Huddersfield Town | No Comments »

Terriers Getting Used To Life In Championship

Sunday, October 28th, 2012

After a less than impressive pre-season in which the team registered just one win (against Chesterfield!) in their seven matches, the season kicked off for Huddersfield Town with fans not daring to hope for anything more than survival in our first season back in the second tier after an eleven year absence. Yet a fantastic start to the season saw them take twenty points from the first eleven games, and be as high as second during that time. However, back to back hammerings at struggling Peterborough (3-1) and Millwall (4-0) have brought Town back down to earth with a bump.

It’s not the first time this season that Simon Grayson has had to suffer successive defeats. After brilliant 3-1 away wins at Hillsborough and Bloomfield Road, the Terriers were beaten at home by Watford and Leicester City. That was at the beginning of October, and they bounced back brilliantly with wins at Birmingham and at home over Wolves. Grayson will be hoping for a similar reaction from his players on Saturday November 3rd when they entertain Bristol City. Winless runs can become very difficult to turn around, and the manager will be hoping to put things right next time out. They managed it last time around, and I’m confident they can do it again.

That’s the beauty of this season’s Championship though, isn’t it? Anyone can beat anyone on any given weekend/midweek. And at least Town fans are being entertained, and we are seeing definitive results currently. Gone are the days of negative draws, and instead we are either winning or losing. We have only drawn two matches so far this term, compared to a ridiculous eighteen last season!

On the whole, though, it’s been a fabulous start to the season for Huddersfield. They’ve been especially good away from home, dominating but ultimately losing the first game of the season at Cardiff in front of the live cameras, and destroying Blackpool and Wednesday in their own backyards, the former again on the tellybox. And they don’t seem to be missing striker Jordan Rhodes either! James Vaughan and Jermaine Beckford, both on loan, are forming a really good looking partnership upfront, with both players scoring regularly, and the club have several million pounds in the bank to boot.

Bottom line, I said at the start of the season that I would be happy with a final position of around thirteenth to fifteenth, and that opinion certainly hasn’t changed because of a good start. The way I see it, we are twenty points closer to staying up!

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

James tweets at @jamesb5374

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Jordan On The Rhodes To Blackburn

Monday, September 3rd, 2012

So, it happened eventually. A club came in and met the valuation we put on our star striker and lured him to the other side of the Pennines. That club was Blackburn Rovers, and that valuation was £8 million. Yep, EIGHT MILLION. For a striker unproven above the third division. Huddersfield Chairman Dean Hoyle said it would take a crazy offer to lure the 22 year old Scottish international away as we weren’t in a position where we had to sell the player. For once, we were the club in control, and we got every penny we could out of the chicken farmers.

That doesn’t mean I’m happy with what transpired on the penultimate day of the transfer window, far from it. While it breaks the club record for a transfer fee received, and by some distance, will it ultimately cost us on the pitch in terms of our place in the second tier?

The biggest annoyance for me is the timing of the sale. It brings back horrible, horrible memories of twelve years ago, when we sold Marcus Stewart to Ipswich Town for our previous record fee of £2.7m(the same fee we also received from Sheffield Wednesday for Andy Booth). At the time, Ipswich were a promotion rival of ours, and Stewart went on to score the winner on his debut against… yep, us! He went on to get promoted that season with the Tractor Boys, and we went into a near-terminal nosedive which saw us end up in administration and the fourth tier, a situation from which we have only recently recovered.

Now, I’m not saying that this will happen again, far from it. In Mr Hoyle, we have the best possible chairman for our proud club; a lifelong fan who was a season ticket holder before he was the chairman, and who has ploughed millions into the club and the team to try and get us into the Championship. So it does seem a little strange that, having finally achieved this dream, he then sells the one player who would net the goals to keep us up and possibly push us into a comfortable position in the division, and sells him without giving his manager enough time to sign a replacement. Of course, he would have been plain daft to turn down the offer from Blackburn, who finally got their man at the fourth time of asking. This does of course show Mr Hoyle’s business acumen that saw him sell his Card Factory business last year for somewhere in the region of £400million. He set a value, and did not waver from that value, not for one second. I certainly do not begrudge him cashing in on his prized asset, as it still will only scratch the surface of the huge outlay he has endured in his four years at the helm. Similarly, I don’t for one second blame Rhodes for taking the thirty grand a week on offer.

However, as fans, we don’t appreciate such things; we don’t like seeing our club sell our star player, and certainly not to a club in the same division, even if the circumstances are different this time to twelve years ago. And we certainly don’t like it when we don’t sign a player to replace the one we’ve just sold. To be fair, Simon Grayson didn’t have much time to sort out a replacement, and apparently we were close to a couple of loan deals, but a huge amount of goals has been ripped out of the team, and that is worrying. We did sign James Vaughan on loan from Norwich, and he has just netted his first goal in the 2-2 draw at Ipswich, but I’m not sure he has twenty goals in him for the season.

Grayson and Hoyle did do everything they could to get players in, the most likely signing looked to be Jermaine Beckford, but the stumbling block was that Leicester wanted a permanent deal, while we wanted a loan. We are now left hoping that Grayson can work his magic and keep us in midtable, and maybe that money will be available in January should we need it.

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

James tweets at @jamesb5374

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Bring It On!

Thursday, August 16th, 2012

Well, here we go! The Championship 2012-13 season is upon us and I cannot wait! Just looking through the fixture list makes me go weak at the knees. Cardiff, Forest, Burnley, Ipswich. Those are our first four fixtures back in the second tier. Compare that to twelve months ago: Bury, Rochdale, Hartlepool, Colchester. Now, no offence to these clubs, but it’s another level entirely isn’t it?

Manager Simon Grayson has been busy in the summer months, bringing in exciting young talent such as Sean Scannell from Crystal Palace and Oliver Norwood from Manchester United, not forgetting Adam Clayton from Leeds United. Couple that with experienced campaigners like Keith Southern and Anthony Gerrard, and Grayson looks to have assembled a squad capable of survival at the very least. Obviously, the most important bit of business by the club was keeping Jordan Rhodes. Chairman Dean Hoyle has repeatedly said that he doesn’t need, want, or intend to sell the Scotland international, and so far he has stayed true to his word.

Rhodes certainly has plenty of suitors. Offers from West Ham, Fulham and Blackburn Rovers have all been rebuffed, with the latter being especially keen to get the player amid reports of offers up to £6m. That seems an awful lot of money for a striker only proven at third division level. However despite these mega offers, I am still confident that Rhodes will be a Terrier when we make the trip to Portman Road on September 1st, and that he will return to haunt his old club that day too.

Anyway, I digress. What are my hopes for the coming season? To still be a Championship club at the end of it, of course, but more than that. I hope that Grayson gets the chance to prove what he can do at this level after his tough times down the road at Leeds, I hope the fans get to see some absolutely cracking matches, both home and away, and I hope we will entertain the neutrals on the few occasions we are on the tellybox.

Most of all, though, I hope, nay I yearn, for midtable mediocrity! That will no doubt come across as the ramblings of a lunatic, but after three seasons of playoff rollercoasters, I would be delighted if next Easter we are somewhere around  twelfth or thirteenth, with no real hope of playoffs, or any fears of the drop. Now that would be nice!

If I were to make a prediction on our finishing position this season, I would go for somewhere around fifteenth. If we keep Rhodes, he will score goals at this level. With the likes of Scannell, Clayton, Norwood, Danny Ward and Lee Novak supplying and backing him up, we should see the net bulge on a regular basis once again.

Being back in the Championship after a decade of turmoil and uncertainty is a dream come true, and looking at the teams taking part this season, I think it is quite possibly the strongest Championship ever. There are perhaps fifteen clubs harbouring hopes, however slim, of promotion, including those promoted from League One, and three massive clubs that have come down from the top flight looking for an immediate return. It’s a brave man that puts his money on the 2012-13 Championship winner. I won’t be betting on it, that’s for sure! At the other end, there are maybe half a dozen teams expecting a tough relegation battle. If Town are somewhere in between, I’ll take that!

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

James tweets at @jamesb5374

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Posted in Championship, Huddersfield Town | No Comments »

Grayson begins rebuild

Sunday, June 3rd, 2012

Huddersfield Town manager Simon Grayson has wasted no time in beginning the overhaul of the squad in preparation for next season’s Championship campaign. Seven players have been released as they reach the end of their contracts, and there are likely to be a few leave for fees. Gary Naysmith, Gary Roberts, Danny Cadamarteri, Tommy Miller, Nathan Clarke, Aidan Chippendale and Simon Thomas have all been released, while new deals have been offered to striker Alan Lee, defender Tom Clarke plus goalkeepers Ian Bennett and Lloyd Atkinson.

The seven that have been released will certainly free up some of the wage bill, as Naysmith, Roberts, Cadamarteri and Miller will all have been on good contracts for League One. It’s mixed emotions in the Clarke family, as Huddersfield born brothers Nathan and Tom experience different emotions this summer. Gary Roberts had been linked with a move last summer, so it’s no surprise that he’s been refusing a new deal at the Galpharm, and I’m sure he will find himself a decent League One club for next term. Naysmith has been good for Town, but the emergence of Calum Woods at left back have limited his appearances, and we all wish him well in his attempts to get himself an employer for 2012/13. I’m sure there will be suitors.

Ian Bennett has been fantastic since joining in June 2010, and even though he is forty years of age, he definitely has Championship quality, and his experience will be invaluable next term. If I’m being honest, I am a little surprised that Alan Lee has been offered a new contract, as he does divide opinion like no other Town player I can ever remember. His supporters defend his style and scoring record, saying that he attracts defenders’ attention, therefore creating space for his teammates. His detractors say that he overuses his elbows and goes to ground way too easily for a man of his size. A lower league Emile Heskey, I guess you could say! There is no doubt that he is a battle hardened warrior who has been round the block a few times, so in that regard it maybe makes sense to keep him around for another season, especially as he has volunteered to take a fifty percent pay cut to stay on.

So, with seven released, and probably one or two sold to raise cash (not Rhodes!), who will be coming in this summer? The rumours are already starting up as you can imagine. We have a reputation as a club with money, so it stands to reason that we will be heavily linked with pretty much any player that becomes available. The positions that need attention are probably backups at full back, a central defender, midfielder and a forward, particularly if Jordan Rhodes is sold.

Damian Johnson could be the first new signing. The midfielder has spent the last two years of his Plymouth Argyle contract on loan at Town, as Argyle couldn’t afford to pay his wages. That contract has now expired, and he has been offered a permanent deal by Grayson. He has been largely excellent for us, and at 33 is another player whose experience will be crucial for next season. The first player most fans will be wanting to come to the club will be Sean Morrison. the centre back was on loan from Reading last season, and was fantastic in our promotion push. He became a firm fans’ favourite, and we all want to see him back on a permanent deal.

The newspapers are also linking Grayson with former Terrier Lee Peltier. The young defender/midfielder was sold by former manager Lee Clark to Leicester City last summer for £750,000 and the reported fee to re-sign him is around half a million. It’s a no brainer if there is any truth to the stories, as he was one of our better players. I would be delighted to see him back at the club. Defender Joel Lynch, of Nottingham Forest, is another name that Grayson is reported to be interested in bringing to West Yorkshire. The Welshman, who has been called up but not played for the national team, can play at left back or in central defence. However, injuries have limited his progress at the City Ground, and he has only averaged twenty appearances a season. A move and a fresh start could be just the ticket.

Jermaine Beckford is another name that has been strongly linked due to his links with Grayson. While he is a decent striker, and I welcomed the rumours on the podcast, I am now having serious reservations about him. He is only really proven at League One level, he hasn’t really impressed at Everton or Leicester. Also, I am not sure he is the best personality to have around either. However, Grayson obviously knows him and how to manage him, and he could be a decent signing.

While I have been writing this article, I have been logged into Twitter reading all the rumours going around. Names like Gary Taylor-Fletcher and Simeon Jackson are being bandied about, and if we could get Jackson I would be absolutely delighted. He’s proven at Championship level, and offers something completely different to what we already have. Taylor-Fletcher is a former Terrier, and while I liked him first time around, I would prefer we look elsewhere.

More and more names get linked all the time, and I’m sure there will be a fair few players going in and out of the club before the end of August!

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

James tweets at @jamesb5374

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Project Promotion Achieved!

Tuesday, May 29th, 2012

Huddersfield Town finally delivered on their potential in 2011-12, winning promotion on a gloriously sunny day at Wembley in perhaps the most bizarre and dramatic penalty shootout in recent years. The season started with many fans, myself included, expecting the team to finish in the top two under the stewardship of Lee Clark. Instead, what we got was a record unbeaten run, a change of manager and a record breaking striker. 2011-12 was, for Huddersfield Town, a rollercoaster season.

After a low key preseason, which involved no home games due to the Galpharm Stadium pitch being relayed, the season got off to an equally low key start. Draws in the first three games was not the start we had been hoping for, and immediately put us six points behind eventual runaway leaders Charlton Athletic. However, four wins out of the next five matches, including a remarkable 3-0 victory at Bramall Lane, saw the Terriers shoot up to third in the table, and really ignite the fans’ hopes for a successful season. However, the team never really put together a lengthy run of victories to put pressure on Charlton at the top of the table, and just seemed to drop points in disappointing games. The amount of two goal leads (and a three goal one!) we threw away to drop points was unbelievable, and saw the team fall further and further behind The Addicks, who just kept putting those three points on the board. We were, however, keeping that unbeaten run going, and drawing our way into the record books!

That run started, fittingly, on January 1st 2011 with a 2-2 draw at Brunton Park against Carlisle United. Terriers fans will not be surprised to read that we were 2-0 ahead in that game! The run ended at 43 games, which comprised twenty five wins and eighteen draws. In the end, it was the best team in the division that ended the run. Chris Powell’s Charlton side easily brushed Town aside as they recorded a 2-0 win which put them seven points clear at the top of the table. It may also have set the wheels in motion for Clark’s demise. He did last another eleven games, until a disappointing 0-1 home defeat to Sheffield United left the club in fourth place, four points behind the Blades in second, who still had a game in hand. Clark was dismissed by chairman Dean Hoyle, who claimed that he had lost faith in Clark’s ability to get us into the top two, and also lost faith that he would succeed in the playoffs at the third time of asking.

It was a brave, some at the time said foolish, decision, and one that would only be justified if the new manager achieved promotion. That new manager was Simon Grayson, himself harshly sacked from his hometown club Leeds United less than three weeks before. He was installed as the new Huddersfield Town manager just five days after Clark was sacked, which does suggest that his availability maybe influenced the chairman’s decision somewhat.

Grayson had sixteen games to deliver the promotion that everyone connected with the club was desperate for. His regular league games in charge have yielded seven wins and five draws, but did also see us lose three league games in a row without scoring, the first time for nearly two years that this has happened. Grayson did, however, deliver a fourth place finish, and a playoff with MK Dons. An impressive performance in the first leg at Stadium: MK saw the Terriers triumph thanks to goals from an expected, and a wholly unexpected source. Jordan Rhodes glanced in a Lee Novak cross to put Town ahead before right back Jack Hunt sealed a 2-0 win with a left footed shot in the 73rd minute.

That first leg win rendered the second leg a little bit redundant, especially when Rhodes notched his fortieth of an amazing personal season in the first half to make it 3-0 on aggregate. MK Dons did end up winning the match 2-1, with Alan Smith heading the winner in stoppage time. So, it would be Town v Sheffield United at Wembley for a place in English football’s second tier. The 120 minutes of football were not great for the watching neutral I imagine, but the twenty minutes or so of penalties were the most dramatic minutes of the season. It was a whole season’s worth of emotion wrapped up in twenty two spot kicks. After missing our first three kicks, there was not a Town fan present who thought we could turn it around. However, Sheffield United missed two of their first three, and thankfully our boys then smashed home the next eight penalties, the last one taken by young goalkeeper Alex Smithies, who was only playing because Ian Bennett broke a finger in the second leg against MK Dons. Steve Simonsen took the fateful last penalty, and blazed it over the bar to send the Terriers’ faithful into delirium. The scenes of jubilation on the pitch and in the stands was a sight to behold, and is without doubt my finest memory in football. I must pay tribute to the Sheffield United players who came to the Town fans and applauded us at the end of the game. Absolute class gesture.

This season was also the season that Jordan Rhodes really made his name in English football. He had already got a reputation as a prolific goalscorer, banging in forty five goals in his first two seasons with the club. However, a forty goal return, including an incredible thirty six league goals, has put him firmly on the radar of clubs in the Championship and Premier League. Depending on which rumours you read, Mr Hoyle has already turned down offers in the region of £4-6million. However, now we are in the Championship, there is an optimism amongst fans that JR might hang around for another season.

Special tribute from me, and I’m sure every single Town fan, goes to our chairman Dean Hoyle. He has put in so much of his own money to drive the club forward and to see the unbridled joy on his face at the end was truly heartwarming. He is one of us; a fan, a season ticket holder before he was the owner, and unquestionably the man to take us forward.

Honourable mentions also should go to Messrs Ken Davy and Lee Clark. Mr Davy, who owns the Huddersfield Giants Rugby League club, bought the football club when it was on it’s deathbed after the horrific reign of Barry Rubery. He steadied the ship and although the end of his six year reign was acrimonious and he is not held in particularly high esteem by the majority of Town fans, without him we would have no club to support. As for Clark, he started us out on this road to the Championship, and there was a lot of love for him on twitter in the hours after the playoff final.

So, onto next season. The aim? Well, obviously, the cliche is to survive, but I think a midtable position is achievable, and if we can keep Rhodes, that should definitely be the target. Onwards and upwards! Bring on the Championship!

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

James tweets at @jamesb5374

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A new kind of play-off woe

Saturday, May 26th, 2012

When Sheffield United finished the season with 90 points in 3rd place, we tied the unfortunate record of the total number of points in the Football League without automatic promotion. The other holder of that honour is Sunderland, who cruely missed out on promotion on penalties in the playoff final of playoff finals – the 4-4 thriller with Charlton.

If you remove completely the thrilling spectacle angle (and I mean completely), United in the League One final was much the same as Sunderland. So near, and yet so far.

It was a strange experience on the day. I’d read a number of accounts of fans before the game about nerves, but this is the first playoff final where ahead of the game I was fairly relaxed. United have an appalling record in playoff finals. Of the three I’ve been to before this season, I’ve seen three losses – in 1997, 2003, and 2009, with a place in the Premier League on the line in each. I felt well prepared for playoff misery. I hadn’t even seen us hit the back of the net once in any of the finals.

And so, with a place in the Championship up for grabs and off the back of three failures, you can forgive me for not getting excited by another potential failure in the run-up to the game.

The game itself was pretty dreadful for the first 80 minutes – barely a chance created by either team – with a flurry of late activity, with two teams clearly desperate not to suffer another 30 mins in the baking sun. Steve Simonsen pulled off three excellent stops, and Nick Montgomery denied the prolific Rhodes a winning goal with an last gasp goal-line clearance.

Extra time, and the switch to 4-4-2 by Danny Wilson opened up the game at both ends a little, but by the end of it 0-0 was probably the result the cagey performances by both teams deserved.

Penalties are always the proverbial footballing lottery. Sepp Blatter’s recently launched an inquiry into an alternative (though the footballing world would probably prefer an inquiry to find an alternative to Sepp Blatter). A game has to be decided somehow. In the end the game turned on which goalkeeper was able to take a decent penalty – as much a toss of a coin as you can get in football surely.

With the first three penalties missed you wondered whether anyone would score one. In Williamson’s case you even had Smithies tip round an effort thatwhat’d been drifting – just to make extra-specially sure it was missed. Up until Neill Collins ran up to strike the ball, United still hadn’t hit the back of the net in a playoff final before.

With Collins scoring, and Simonsen saving the third Terriers pen from ever-horrible Alan Lee, this was a great chance to win it. Score two of the remaining three penalties and United were up. For the first time in the afternoon, I actually started to believe that this might be the day we win a playoff final – you could almost taste it.

It was not to be. Matty Lowton has had an excellent season, and many inclusing myself would have been happy to see him take a penalty. Sadly, his effort was saved. Then came reserve left-back Andy Taylor, brought on late-on specifically to take a penalty – a surprise to lots of us who were totally unaware of any penalty-taking prowess. And with good reason too. The moment the ball crashed against the post was the moment all the hope I had seconds before vanished.

We then followed that with a back and forth of pressure penalties, where individuals you wouldn’t expect to be any good showed surprising ability – and where any miss would have ended the game. Porter for the fifth and Matty Hill’s top corner effort at 7-7 in particular stood out as being pretty ballsy penalties.

With Smithies scoring the eleventh Terriers pen for 8-7, the task fell to Simonsen, having already saved two of the initial pens. The resultant miss by Simonsen is particularly harsh for him, and I can’t imagine after possibly his best performance in a United shirt that many fans will be putting defeat down to how the eleventh choice penalty-taker dealt with his penalty. A final in the baking sunshine at Wembley, decided by the final kick of what was a drab game – it was like 1997 and Crystal Palace all over again.

So, another playoff cruelty – in an exciting new way! We’ve had the last minute Hopkin goal. We’ve had the three-down-by-half-time final. We’ve also had the final-where-we-got-two-red-cards final. Now we have the final decided by a shoot out involving every player finishing the game.

90 points, 92 goals. No promotion. It’s a cruel way to end the season. Off the back of an abysmal year before, Danny Wilson has done a fantastic job in lifting the players he inherited, getting the likes of Neill Collins and Michael Doyle to be essential players in the team when most fans would have been happy for him to ship them elsewhere. The level of football played has been the best for many years. We’ve had all manner of set backs. And Danny now has to lift us again.

There will almost certainly be a big clearout in the coming months. Various players have expiring contracts. These include:

- Steve Simonsen (excellent in the final, shaky at other times)
- Lee Williamson (excellent in the season, less so in the final)
- Kevin McDonald (key to the midfield in the season, ideal for the Wembley pitch, sadly injured ahead of the final)
- Ched Evans (excellent in the season, in jail for the foreseeable future), and
- James Beattie (dreadful in the season, and who will be missing the first game of next season through suspension were he through some miracle to be fit anyway)

Couple that with the likely bids that will be coming in for young stars Matty Lowton and Harry Maguire this summer, which we’ll probably accept, and it’s looking in some ways to be a bigger rebuild job than this time last year for Danny in getting a decent squad together to push for promotion.

Still, despite everything I’m actually feeling far less despondent that I would have thought I’d be. It’s a sad end to what has been an otherwise really enjoyable year in League One. Let’s regroup, and get that automatic place next year.

Written by Joe Clift, We Are Going Up’s Sheffield United blogger

Joe tweets at @josephclift, and also blogs at One Foot In The Game (@1FITG)

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Posted in Featured, League One, Sheffield United | 3 Comments »

Blades Quietly Doing The Business

Saturday, February 25th, 2012

At the start of the season, Sheffield United named ex-Sheffield Wednesday player and manager, Danny Wilson as the man to try and lead the team back into the Championship. Eyebrows were raised by all supporters, including myself, as other candidates such as Keith Hill and Roberto Di Matteo had been overlooked. Many will remember the protests at the press conference as Wilson was unveiled, something that didn’t present the club in a positive light at the start of the new era, however very few could have anticipated what a change would be made.

For years, Sheffield United have been seen as a team who get the job done by whatever means possible. Encouraged by Neil Warnock, Kevin Blackwell and Micky Adams, Blades teams of old have played the long ball game but to limited success. Last season, only one of four managers tried to pass the ball to create openings and that was short-term boss Gary Speed. That mentality soon changed once he took up the Wales job and was replaced, firstly by John Carver and then Adams. Danny Wilson fitted the criteria of creating a ‘no fear’ attitude towards playing the ball on the floor which was called for by many fans although his lack of promotions and career statistics were worrying. Owner and Chairman Kevin McCabe stuck to his guns and it has so far worked out better than most could have imagined.

The transformation from the first whistle of the campaign has been phenomenal with United gaining plaudits from several opponents and being able to control the game at crucial times. The atmosphere at matches has also been a positive influence with the crowd finally singing Wilson’s name thanks to a comical chant first heard at The Valley a month ago. The recent performances against Wycombe, Huddersfield and Preston in recent weeks have epitomised Wilson’s passing mentality whilst maintaining the never-say-die attitude of teams of old, more than justifying the chants.

Patience was a key word used by Wilson after the Wycombe game when the Blades were victorious 3-0 after it took 66 minutes to eventually break down the visitors defence. If the same game had been played 12 months ago, the crowd would have been complaining and abusing their own team which would result in long balls pumped into the box at the first opportunity rather than calmly looking for openings and keeping the ball. ‘The opposition can’t score if you’re in possession’ seemed to be the overriding thought following the game with United enjoying 70% of the overall possession.

In the following game away at Huddersfield Town, an early goal from Neil Collins put the Blades on the receiving end of what could have been one of their own performances from last season. After surviving a barrage of crosses and long throw-ins in the first half, the second was a much more open game with Kevin McDonald instrumental in central midfield for the Blades. Both Wilson and McCabe deserve credit for the signature of McDonald who he has been a key part in resurrecting the sinking ship and a candidate for best recruitment. Despite having the most clear cut chances, Huddersfield couldn’t break down the defence, especially Maguire, Collins and with ‘keeper Simonsen on top form. Views after the game suggested Huddersfield may have made life easier if the players had taken a bit of time on the ball. This result ultimately cost Lee Clark his job at Huddersfield and the appointment of Simon Grayson could be just what is needed to calm the players and focus them as they push for second place.

The next match was at home to Graeme Westley’s Preston side who, like Huddersfield, offered yet another physical threat. Just before the half-hour mark, in-form Ched Evans struck a weak penalty and Preston suddenly came into the game for the first time and hit back with a goal ten minutes later. The thoughts from the stands could easily have been to expect a spiritless performance from then on, given last season’s performances from similar situations but Danny Wilson has renewed the player’s confidence, meaning that their performances have given them the freedom to push on and score goals. This meant it was no surprise when Evans struck an equaliser within five minutes of going behind and then the winner ten minutes from time. A major blow from the Preston game was the injury sustained by Kevin McDonald which makes him a doubt for the game against Wednesday.

United go in to the derby as the in-form side and arguably the favourites for the game against their cross-city neighbours. Both managers have gone into the game with different attitudes. Danny Wilson has kept his cards close to his chest whilst commenting on his own squad and putting the focus on the fans rather than his own return to Hillsborough. Gary Megson on the other hand has become more and more frustrated with recent results going against them and has succumb to making rash comments about opposition players and budgets as if readying himself to defend any dropped points.

The 127th steel city derby this Sunday will be a tremendous atmosphere, despite it being played in the third tier of English football. The game will be watched by around 45,000 spectators at both Hillsborough and via a beam-back at Bramall Lane. The league positions, the openness in the title run and the build up has led this game as being dubbed the most important game between the two sides since the 1993 FA Cup semi final at Wembley. Anything can happen in games like this and the red and white half of the city will be hoping Danny Wilson’s calming influence can bring at least a point back to S2 following the game. A United victory could be a massive blow to Wednesday’s automatic promotion hopes thanks to the other contender’s games in hand. Alternatively, a victory for the Owls could open the promotion race up further by going just two points behind second placed United. Either way, the supporters should be in for a derby day that will live long in the memory, hopefully for all the right reasons for the Unitedites.

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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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Posted in Huddersfield Town, League One | 1 Comment »

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