Bruce's backing for the Terriers

The Terriers host Bruce’s Aston Villa tonight knowing that victory would be a major boost to their hopes of cementing a play-off place with games starting to run out.

If Rotherham United can also do their Yorkshire neighbours a big favour by beating Brighton & Hove Albion, a first home win over Villa since 1969 would also halve the gap between David Wagner’s side and second place.

The stakes, therefore, are high at the John Smith’s Stadium as Bruce returns to a club he led to the top of the second tier at the halfway stage of 1999-2000 only for a late season collapse to eventually yield a hugely disappointing eighth place finish.

“Huddersfield are a very, very good side,” said Bruce to The Yorkshire Post. “They also have an up and coming manager who has bought really well.

“He has made a big impact since coming to England and built a very good team.

“They play a certain way and it is getting results. We will have our work cut out to get something, that’s for sure.

“I have nothing but respect for what David and Huddersfield are doing this season. As far as I am concerned, they have a chance to make automatic promotion, never mind the play-offs.”

Wagner admitted yesterday he considers Newcastle, favourites to go up before a ball was kicked in anger this term, to be near certainties to win promotion this season following their 3-1 triumph over his Town side last weekend.

That Huddersfield, rated by the bookies last August as more likely to go down than challenge at the top end of the table, are so firmly entrenched in the race for the Premier League is more of a surprise but Bruce sees parallels with one of the four Premier League promotions on his own CV.

“Huddersfield remind me of Hull in my first year there,” he said in reference to the 2012-13 campaign that saw the Tigers finish second in the Championship despire being priced at 33-1 in pre-season. “No-one even looked at us in terms of promotion, certainly not the bookies who had us at huge odds.

“All the pundits were saying things like, ‘Hull won’t last the pace as the surprise package’. But Hull did go up and Huddersfield can do the same. Why not?”

Bruce may have won more promotions to the top flight than any other manager but he admits the ‘one that got away’ at Huddersfield still rankles.

Town topped the table at Christmas, 1999, and were still occupying a play-off place with just one game remaining of the regular season.

However, defeat at Fulham on the final day coupled with results elsewhere, meant Town finished eighth to leave supporters bemoaning the sale of top scorer Marcus Stewart to Ipswich Town for £2.5m the previous January.

“This is a tough league but Huddersfield have given themselves a chance,” said Bruce. “The club was in a similar position when I was manager but then came the Stewart episode and that was that.

“I am sure I still get the blame for that, no matter how times I deny it. Even without Stewart, though, we were in the play-offs right up until the end before falling out.

“We only needed something like a point from the last three games and couldn’t even manage that. It was a big learning curve for me. I was still young as a manager back then.

“Sometimes a team gets one chance. We couldn’t take advantage (in 2000) and here we are all these years later and this is the first time Huddersfield have been in this position since then.

“The Championship is a tough, tough league, as we have found. Big clubs like Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday have been down here a long, long time as well. It shows that you have to take that opportunity when it comes along because you never know when it might happen again.”

Wagner returns to the touchline tonight after serving a two-game ban for the clash with Garry Monk towards the end of last month’s derby win over Leeds.

“Newcastle is promoted, or will get promoted,” said Wagner when asked about the race for the Premier League. “Brighton – and this is what I hear from people who have much more experience of English football than I have – have struggled in the past, often at the end of the season.

“Newcastle, I am totally sure they are up. But Brighton, we will see. There are so many games to go, 12 for us and 11 for everyone else. It is very difficult to say who will get promoted but for Newcastle I am totally sure.”

Last six games: Huddersfield Town WDWDLL, Aston Villa LLLWWW.

Referee: D Bond (Lancashire).

Last time: Huddersfield Town 0 Aston Villa 1; September 19, 1997; Division Two.