Video - Premier League holds no fear for Huddersfield Town as they look to win new friends

David Wagner’s manifest delight in Huddersfield Town regularly displaying a ‘Terriers identity’ to overcome a host of Championship ‘top dogs’ was recited endlessly during a riotous season of magnificent against-the-odds defiance. Town were supposed to go away, but they simply would not.

More fights now await on arguably the most ferocious footballing stage of all – the Premier League. Again, there will be those from the outside who mock and belittle Huddersfield’s credentials, but for Wagner and co, it is fuel for the long months ahead.

Just under a year ago, Wagner famously took his Town charges to a remote and uninhabited Swedish island for a Bear Grylls-style bonding trip, with a reservoir of togetherness and resilience built up ahead of what proved an epic year in the lives of every first-team player.

There will be no such survival trip this time around, but the challenge ahead of the club’s first top-flight season in 45 years is similarly onerous, while also inspiring. It will test all of Town’s endurance and character. And plenty more besides.

It has been an intoxicating time to be a Town fan over the past fortnight or so and the glorious reality of just what they achieved at Wembley was finally hammered home when they received their top-flight fixture itinerary for 2017-18.

Town stand shoulder to shoulder alongside English football’s glitterati on merit, with league trips to the likes of Old Trafford, Anfield and Stamford Bridge now down in black and white.

It is hopefully the start of another magical journey for Huddersfield and excitement – and certainly not trepidation or fear – is the overwhelming emotion for club ambassador Andy Booth.

The legendary Town striker may have missed out on representing his beloved hometown club in the big time. But this is very much the next best thing.

Booth said: “As a football club, this is something that you wait for. I have got to be honest, atHuddersfield Town, we never thought this day would come. Over the years, there have been some dark days and poor football.

“We have got to enjoy this and it is now real because we have seen the fixtures. We are Premier League and there for a reason. It is going to be a fantastic and tough season, but I am sure we are going to be enjoying it.

“Everyone will write us off and people will be expecting us to fill one relegation place next year. That probably helps us – we have no expectation at all and we can go out and enjoy it. We will have no fear as no-one will be expecting anything of us.”

The odds may be firmly stacked against Town, but given the way in which they collectively shredded perceived footballing wisdom last season – and held their nerve at critical junctures – it will serve as a useful exercise.

On paper, a start which sees Town travel to Crystal Palace and then host Newcastle and Southampton in the first month and face only one ‘big-hitter’ in Spurs in the opening two months of the season is perhaps no bad thing.

Town won 22 games by a single-goal margin last term – a Championship record – and that innate ability to get over the line should provide succour when they look at their first batch of games and a key run of matches between mid-February and mid-April.

That facet will also be tested during a bottleneck of games over December and the festive season with clubs having to fit in eight games in a month with the season shortened to help England prepare for the 2018 World Cup.

This sort of fixture chaos is about as far removed from Wagner’s German homeland as it gets. It will test mentality and fitness levels and resources, as will Huddersfield’s final four games of the season which pits them against Chelsea, Everton, Manchester City and Arsenal. Then there are back-to-back games against Manchester United and Liverpool in mid-autumn and mid-winter.

But with the support of neutrals and goodwill abound, Town are embracing the challenge. They will have a go – sadly something that Middlesbrough could not be accused of in 2016-17 – and will endear themselves to others.

Booth said: “We will be one of those clubs who everyone will love.

“A lot of people will have seen Dean’s (Hoyle) reaction at Wembley and how drained he was and what it meant to him.

“You look at a lot of other clubs and don’t know their chairmen – who are there for business. Ours is there because he loves the club and it means the world to him and a lot of people realise that.

“You see some clubs who have been mismanaged and look where they are now. That won’t happen at Huddersfield Town, I am confident of that.

“We are a family club and I think people will take us to their hearts, especially with the way we play football as well. I think we will be a lot of people’s second team.”