Huddersfield Town start the healing process and 'northern football' renaissance - final word on opening-day lift against Leyton Orient
“THERE’S no place in the world I’d rather be”, gushed Kevin Nagle in his opening-day address to the Huddersfield Town populace in his programme notes.
After the shrill of the final whistle on a very satisfying Saturday afternoon, a brief, but strong sense of exhilaration will have left Town’s ebullient US owner feeling top of the world and he was entitled to enjoy the view from his vantage point at the Accu Stadium.
A sweet refrain of ‘We are top of the league’ from the delighted blue and white faithful had preceded referee Simon Mather calling time on proceedings and will have made for delightful music. It’s a melody Nagle would dearly love to hear next spring.
His compatriots Tom Brady and Rob McElhenney dined out on League One fare with Birmingham City and Wrexham last season and Nagle will want his piece of the pie.
One swallow doesn’t mean a summer, for sure. Yet as starts go, this was what Nagle and co will have hankered for. Even if the manager in Lee Grant wanted a bit more; all new managers do.
Yes, Town were not blindly brilliant and showy from minute one to the end of proceedings. But they were pretty darn good in the circumstances.
Committed, cohesive and competent, more especially given that eight players were making their league debuts.
Some of the ‘northern football’ was sexy too at times in the August sunshine.
Overall, it was the sort of assured, comfortable-in-your-own-skin performance, on parched home soil, that Town produced nowhere near enough of last season. In each half as well.
That helps to explain why it augured so well in a victory sweetened by some ghastly events against the very same visitors almost exactly three months earlier in the Terriers’ previous league match.
This time, it was the visitors who were the unhappy ones. Orient manager Richie Wellens, never one to beat around the bush, summed things up succinctly afterwards, labelling his side's performance as 'boring’ and ‘very immature'.
They did come up against improved and revitalised hosts, that said. What a difference three months makes.
One debutant got Grant's Town up and running and another cooked Orient's goose.
After passing up a glorious chance in last weekend's friendly against Burnley from a succulent right-wing cross, Joe Low made hay when it mattered, with his thumping header flying past O's keeper Tommy Simkin from Herbie Kane's free-kick delivery.
Before that, Aaron Connolly and Ben Wiles had hit the post at either end in a very watchable opening. It contributed to an entertaining half of football, much especially given the slop served up at HD1 for much of 2025.
While eyes naturally gravitated to the new faces on parade for Town, the performances of Wiles, who bothered Orient all game, and the indefatigable and reliable Mickel Miller – badly missed in his injury absence last season – in particular were not lost upon seasoned home observers.
In a final 15 minutes of the first period, the hosts went off piste slightly – perhaps not helped by an injury to debutant Sean Roughan. Some things change, but some sadly stay the same. Injuries continue to stalk Town.
Still, it was a first half which the hosts controlled in the main and on the restart, their second killer goal was exquisitely timed and finished off an Orient side who had sauntered to victory here 91 days earlier.
The name who got on the scoresheet next was the one that everyone wanted from a Town perspective.
When Sean Clare was penalised for stretching out an injudicious leg and felling Wiles just inside the box, there was only ever going to be one taker.
It was left to Alfie May to provide a piece of history in his opening game in a Town jersey and he did just that.
He became the first Town player to score a penalty in front of home followers since late February 2020. Some 1,984 days to be precise.
It was the final goal, finished off by Ruben Roosken at the far post which provided the coup de grace and left Grant feeling the most pleased – even if the game had been over as a competitive entity for well over half an hour.
“It was Lasse Sorensen to Dion Charles to Joe Taylor to Ruben Roosken,” the Town chief observed.
“That's a chain of four people who started the game on the bench who were wired into their jobs.
“I am really pleased the group see the importance of that already as that will be what defines us, the group as a whole."
Huddersfield Town: Goodman; Whatmough, Low, Roughan (Roosken 24); Gooch (Sorensen 80), Ledson, Kane (Kasumu 80), Miller; Harness (Taylor 64), Wiles; May (Charles 79). Unused substitutes: Nicholls, Balker.
Leyton Orient: Simkin; James (Simpson 66), Edmonds-Green, Happe, Adaramola; Clare (Moorhouse 66); Perkins (O’Neill HT); Abdulai (Obiero 67), Bakinson (White 67), Koroma; Connolly. Unused substitutes: Cahill, Cooper.
Referee: S Mather (Lancs).