Invincibles can repay Clark’s club loyalty to Terriers

The Terriers can equal a proud record that has stood for almost 33 years by avoiding defeat when struggling Walsall visit the Galpharm Stadium.

Nottingham Forest will be the club to lose their status as the outright holders of the longest unbeaten record in Football League history, Brian Clough’s side having gone 42 games without losing in the old First Division before crashing 2-0 at Liverpool on an afternoon when Terry McDermott, now Town’s assistant manager, scored one of the record-smashing goals.

Few would surely bet against Town matching Forest’s feat tomorrow, even allowing for the potential distraction caused this week by Leicester City’s pursuit of the 38-year-old.

Before his dramatic decision to stay, Clark, on the premise Kevin Keegan would also come in as director of football, had led the betting market to become Sven Goran Eriksson’s successor.

Yesterday morning, Town fans woke to reports that their manager had met Leicester officials so must have feared the worst only for the former Newcastle United midfielder to commit his future to the club at lunchtime.

That leaves Roy Keane as favourite with Nigel Pearson also strongly fancied by the bookmakers to make a return to the East Midlands, though when meeting the media at his weekly press conference yesterday the Hull City chief was at pains to point out that he saw the speculation as nothing more than an irritation.

Regardless of just who Leicester do appoint, what is surely not in doubt is just how high Clark’s star has risen in recent months, helped in the main by the stunning run of league form that has left the Terriers on the verge of making history.

Going more than 10 months without losing in a division as competitive as League One is a phenomenal feat.

The more pedantic among the Yorkshire football fraternity may ask, as they did of this correspondent at Tuesday night’s Barnsley v Hull City fixture and then again the following night as Leeds United hosted Blackpool, how Town can claim to have such a long unbeaten record when they were denied promotion by losing a League play-off final but that would surely be churlish.

It is a run deserving of the highest praise, serving as it does as testament to the determination and resilience that Clark has engendered among his troops.

There have, of course, been a few near misses along the way. Last February, for instance, Town were distinctly second best against Bournemouth but left Dean Court with a point thanks to an 89th-minute equaliser by Danny Cadamarteri.

Huddersfield’s run survived in even more dramatic fashion in April when Jack Hunt rescued a draw at home to Peterborough United in stoppage time, while just 10 days ago it took two penalty saves by Ian Bennett to ensure Scunthorpe United were held to a 2-2 draw at Glanford Park.

Those apart, though, the Terriers have been in imperious form since suffering that last league defeat – a 4-1 hammering at Southampton on December 28 last year.

An honest attitude is one of the major factors behind the club remaining unbeaten in 2011, a feature of the games this correspondent has seen being the complete absence of any on-field conflict between team-mates.

There may be disagreements from time to time and a bit of finger-pointing if something goes wrong to allow the opposition to score. But the team built by Clark looks to be exactly that – a team.

A down-to-earth atmosphere pervades at the club, as has been particularly evident since the recent opening of the new training complex at Canalside.

Where before the players would change at the Galpharm and then drive to the University grounds at Storthes Hall on the other side of town, now everything is on one site with the players changing, training and then eating together.

The value of this set-up to team spirit cannot be overstated, with any visits to see Clark for his weekly press briefings bringing home just how much the players and staff enjoy each other’s company.

That togetherness is something Town have been taking out on to the pitch, as anyone who was at the recent Stevenage game saw when a bust-up between Clark and the opposing bench at the final whistle led to several of his players weighing into the spat on behalf of their manager.

What has also been evident on those visits to interview Clark at Canalside is how relaxed the set-up has quickly become as players mingle freely with members of the social club who pop in for their lunch, showing once again the total absence of any ‘Big-Time Charlies’ at the club.

Much of this harmony behind the scenes can be put down to the spirit created by Clark, who also deserves praise for his work in the transfer market.

Critics may point with some justification to the financial support he has enjoyed from Dean Hoyle being far superior to that of other League One managers.

But that money still has to be spent well and Clark has done that, particularly when faced with the loss of influential duo Anthony Pilkington and Lee Peltier in £1m-plus moves to divisions above last summer.

Danny Ward and Callum Woods were brought in with the minimum of fuss as like-for-like replacements and, if anything, Town look to have a stronger squad this time around as a result.

That strength in depth is why Huddersfield are now so close to earning a slice of football history by matching Nottingham Forest’s year-long unbeaten run, a record that was itself eclipsed in the Premier League by Arsenal when they went 49 games without losing.

Should they successfully negotiate their way past Walsall tomorrow then who would bet against Town, buoyed by their manager’s decision to stay, going on to eclipse even Arsene Wenger’s Invincibles.