Huddersfield Town’s Wembley triumph boosts Yorkshire football feelgood factor

IF Saturday’s play-off triumph at Wembley is anything to go by, Huddersfield Town will be a welcome addition to the Championship next season.

The thrilling penalty shoot-out victory over Yorkshire rivals Sheffield United highlighted a team with a good blend of guts and talent and fans with unwavering belief and the lungs to communicate it over nearly three nerve-wracking hours.

Manager Simon Grayson won many friends during his previous tenures at Blackpool and Leeds United and he boasts the experience needed to keep them in the Championship next season.

Equally chairman Dean Hoyle’s dizzy slalom run onto the pitch at the end to embrace players and salute supporters highlights that this is a club in good hands off the pitch.

Hoyle, a local boy done well after building up and then selling retail chain Card Factory, has put the club on a firm financial footing and through chief executive Nigel Clibbens and commercial director Sean Jarvis (sporting his trademark perma-tan and waistcoat in Wembley’s Royal Box on Saturday) established solid links with a host of firms and organisations in the West Yorkshire town including healthcare manufacturer Thornton & Ross, insurer Wilby and Kirklees College.

The club have also built a network of influential supporters including James Sommerville who founded Attik and Grant Thornton dealmaker Ian Marwood.

And while Terriers fans bask in the early summer sunshine and the warm glow of promotion, their success has given Yorkshire football a boost too.

Next season they can look forward to matches against Leeds United, Sheffield Wednesday, Barnsley, Hull and Middlesbrough.

Leeds, under the determined Neil Warnock will be aiming for promotion to the Premiership, as will Middlesbrough while Sheffield Wednesday will be looking to emulate Norwich with a double promotion.

Hull will hope their soon-to be named new manager can give them momentum while Barnsley, under Keith Hill, are capable of beating any team in what is always a topsy turvy Championship.

And spare a thought for Sheffield United. The Blades missed out on automatic promotion from League One by a whisker and lost out in the play-offs by one penalty. With their fans having left the stadium, the Sheffield United players walked to the Huddersfield end of Wembley to applaud the Town fans, a generous gesture I’ve never seen before at a major final.

For football fans, the season can’t start soon enough, but for Yorkshire football, it feels like better times are already here.