Championship is Town’s target not shooting beyond Gunners’ record

HUDDERSFIELD TOWN are a club on the up.

Not only are the Terriers the proud new owners of a Football League record but they also possess a striker whose scoring deeds have made him the talk of the game.

Throw in manager Lee Clark resisting the overtures of big-spending Leicester City earlier this month and it is clear why a feelgood factor can be clearly detected in the air at the Galpharm Stadium these days.

For chairman Dean Hoyle, these are heady times indeed. Never a man to rest on his laurels, however, the lifelong fan admits that as pleasing as the accolades coming Town’s way in the past few weeks have been, they will count for little should the season not end successfully.

“It has been great for the profile of the club,” said Hoyle when talking to the Yorkshire Post about the unbeaten run. “The players and the management deserve the recognition that has come their way.

“To set a new Football League record for unbeaten games is a fantastic achievement. But it is also one that will only mean something if we go on to win promotion this season. That was our target before a ball was kicked and it remains our target.

“If we fail then the run will mean little. The manager is very clear about that, saying we can only look back on the record with satisfaction come the end of the season if Huddersfield Town are in the Championship.”

Following on from last May’s heart-breaking play-off final defeat to Peterborough United, Hoyle admits Town’s run has been the perfect fillip.

“The one thing we didn’t want in the summer was to start the season suffering a hangover from what happened at Old Trafford,” said the Terriers chief.

“Myself and Nigel (Clibbens, chief executive) identified that straight away. We knew that a lot of clubs had struggled after a disappointment like that and come out of the traps slowly. But, apart from maybe one or two draws at the beginning, we have done very, very well.

“The key was not feeling sorry for ourselves as a club. We didn’t and the run we are on shows that.”

Two goals by Jordan Rhodes, taking his tally to 21 in 11 games for club and country, were enough to defeat Notts County and extend Town’s unbeaten run to 43 games – despite having Alan Lee sent off, a decision the club have appealed against.

County’s city neighbours Forest were the side whose previous record was eclipsed, leaving Huddersfield with the all-time English football record of 49 games unbeaten, set by Arsenal’s Invincibles in the Premier League, now firmly in the Yorkshire club’s sights.

To put the Gunners’ record in danger will, though, be a tough ask, not least because Clark’s side are due to face leaders Charlton Athletic and third-placed Sheffield Wednesday in their next two away games.

Should the Terriers emerge unscathed from those two trips and the home game against Bournemouth, the side they beat on penalties in last season’s play-off semi-final, sandwiched in between then supporters really can dream of footballing immortality for their team.

Hoyle, of course, would love to see Town match and then beat Arsenal’s record. At the moment, however, his only focus is next Monday’s trip to The Valley and a mouth-watering clash between first and second in League One.

The Huddersfield chairman said: “Monday is going to be an intriguing game. It is probably the first time this season we will go into a game as underdogs so that will be a new experience.

“Charlton have started extremely well and their manager has to take great credit for galvanising his players into such an impressive team.

“It will be a good test and being on television there is bound to be a lot of interest in the game. Hopefully, our players will rise to the occasion like they have so many times in the past.

“What the game won’t do is decide anything. I remember playing Southampton last season (in mid-October) and telling their chairman that no matter what happened in the 90 minutes that afternoon it would not decide anything.

“We won 2-0 and Southampton went up so, unfortunately, that proved to be correct. Win, lose or draw on Monday, I don’t imagine it making too much difference to the final league table as there will still be so much football to play before the end of the season.

“Everyone still has to play each other, in some cases twice. So nothing will be decided by the end of Monday night.”

As for the fight to reach the Championship, Hoyle added: “It is looking like a five-horse race for promotion.

“I am not being derogatory to the others but a gap has opened up with Charlton, ourselves, the two Sheffield clubs and MK Dons looking like being the challengers for automatic promotion.”

Town’s stunning unbeaten record – their last defeat in a regular league game having come at Southampton last year – is certain to be a major focus of the pre-match build-up to Monday’s match, which is being screened live by Sky Television.

For the Town squad, however, the run is incidental compared to the need to put in another impressive performance against a major rival in the promotion race.

Hoyle said: “All season, the players and management have not thought too much about the record. At least not until the last two or three games anyway when it started to be mentioned a lot in the media.

“They are rightly proud of what has been achieved. But from 5pm last Saturday, the focus of the manager and his players has been on our next game. There is a lot riding on this season, especially with the salary cap due to come in from the start of next season.

“Obviously, the Championship is where we want to be in order to keep developing the club in the future.”