Why a place at football's top table matters so much to Huddersfield Town

It’s late afternoon and thin fingers of burnished sunlight trickle through the windows of the Slubbers Arms.

Stepping inside this quirky pub just outside Huddersfield town centre is like walking into a museum full as it is with historical oddities, which include everything from an impressive collection of ancient beer bottles, to antique brass fire extinguishers and bygone photographs.

There are other incongruities such as the clocking in cards on one wall, a doff of the cap to the pub’s, and the town’s, historic textile associations. It is old school, to use the modern parlance - the kind of place you come for a long sup rather than a quick drink.

When I walk in it’s remarkably quiet, but come here on match days when Huddersfield Town are playing and it’s standing room only with the pub one of the popular stopping off points for fans before they head to the stadium.

Regulars here have been in celebratory mood following the team’s nerve-jangling penalty shoot-out victory over Reading at Wembley in Monday’s Championship play-off final. Michael Whittaker, a regular who lives in nearby Fartown, says even those not interested in football have been swept up in the emotion of it all. “I’m a cricket fan rather than a football fan, but I can appreciate what it means to the town and the people here. There’s a real feeling that the club’s back where it belongs,” he says.

For supporters elsewhere, the club’s return to the top tier of English football after a 45 year absence resonates more personally.

Stephen Booth has been a season ticket holder since he started supporting the club as a teenager in 1970. “The year we got relegated was the same year that man last landed on the moon. I was 15 years old and now I’m pretty much retired. But I never thought I’d have to wait this long to see them get back up,” he says. “There have been some dark days and there were times in my heart of hearts when I thought we’d never get there again.”

Arguably the lowest point came during the summer of 2003. At the time Booth was one of the leading lights in a campaign to raise £130,000 needed to help keep the club afloat while a new owner was sought.

In the end Ken Davy saved them but the situation was so perilous at one point that a place was booked in the Northern Counties East Football League in case the club went into liquidation. “That was a real possibility at one point, so to now be in the Premier League is just incredible.”

Booth, who owns a catering business, says this makes the club’s renaissance all the more remarkable. “It’s huge for the whole town not just the club. The feelgood factor goes beyond Huddersfield and into the old mill towns, too. It’s a massive boost to Kirklees and Calderdale.”

He believes it’s also a chance to cement the club’s future. “When I started supporting the team we’d just got into the old First Division and in Brighouse where I lived all the lads had Town tops in the early 70s. But in the 90s when Bradford City were in the Premier League the kids were all wearing Bradford’s colours.

“This is now a chance to create a new generation of Huddersfield Town fans because you never change your colours once you start supporting a team. So I’m looking forward to seeing a lot more blue and white shirts in Brighouse.”

David Taylor, the club’s former chairman and honorary president, says promotion gives the club a platform to build on. “Ninety years ago we were the best football team in the country. We won the league title three years in a row and the FA Cup and now we’re back at the top table. We might not be the best team again but we can be the most hospitable club and the most community-orientated club in the country,” he says.

Huddersfield’s victory has prompted an outpouring of goodwill towards the town in recent days. “I’ve been getting emails and messages of congratulations from all over the country and places as far away as Kazakhstan and China,” says Taylor.

It’s a sign of the global pulling power of the Premier League - last year it agreed a major new deal for its TV rights in China worth up to £560m - and with so much money flying around and a worldwide audience now into the billions, Huddersfield Town’s success is a chance not only to promote the club but the town and the region. “It’s important because we’re flying the flag for Yorkshire,” says Taylor.

“If the football team does well it raises our profile and it means people are more likely invest in the town because they think it’s a good place to be.”

Huddersfield has often punched above its weight. It has produced notable figures such as former Prime Minister Harold Wilson as well as acting legend James Mason. It is the textile industry, though, for which the town is perhaps best known. The boom period for Huddersfield’s textile businesses was during the early 20th century when the words ‘Made in Huddersfield, England’ became a byword for quality that earned global recognition. At one time as many as a third of all men and two-thirds of women in the town worked in textiles. However, by the 1970s the industry was in decline - one mirrored by the town’s football team.

Today, Huddersfield is enjoying a renaissance both on and off the football pitch. The town’s university has garnered a growing reputation for excellence and last month unveiled its new flagship £28m Oastler Building, home to its Law School and School of Music, Humanities and Media.

There is a sense of optimism and excitement that is bound up in the team’s success. Andy Earnshaw is a local businessman and has been a Town fan for the last 47 years. He says there’s a buzz around the town.

“You see flags in windows and people have been beeping their horns, there’s a really positive vibe,” he says.

There are tangible benefits, too, that stretch beyond the euphoria of seeing your team finally reach the promised land of the Premier League. “The matches are shown on TV all over the world so it’s a chance for Huddersfield’s name to get recognised. The university might find more students coming here because they see Huddersfield has a Premier League team. It all links in.”

“As part of my job I travel a lot in Europe and when I get asked where I’m from I say it’s in between Leeds and Manchester. But people will be more likely to know where Huddersfield is now because the club’s in the Premier League.”

Earnshaw also believes that Huddersfield Town and the way the club has succeeded on a limited budget can become a role model not just for other football teams, but other businesses too.

“They have this self-belief and a mindset of ‘no limits’, which has become a slogan for the team. I look at this and think ‘why don’t other local businesses take a leaf out of Huddersfield Town’s book?’ This is the kind of effect we’re talking about.”