We had just been relegated and in administration for 10 months. The club was at its lowest ebb
FOURTEEN years after Huddersfield Town slid into the then Third Division, Andy Booth’s boyhood club are 90 minutes away from one of the greatest comebacks in English football.
It has been a long time coming.
In the summer of 2003 the Terriers were a hollowed-out husk, riddled by administration. Relegation to English football’s fourth tier followed and players and staff departed as the club downsized.
Manager Peter Jackson – drafted in to boost spirits in what was thought to be a lost cause – had just five players on his books the following pre-season. Booth was one. “Those were dark days,” Booth told Express Sport. “We had just been relegated to the bottom league and had been in administration for 10 months. The players had not been paid all that time. The club was at its lowest ebb.”
But under Jackson, Huddersfield mounted a challenge for automatic promotion and, when they fell short, rode their luck to bypass Mansfield Town on spot-kicks in the playoff final in Cardiff.
It almost did not happen. A Mansfield goal wrongly ruled out and Liam Lawrence’s ridiculous chipped penalty miss gifted Huddersfield promotion.
Booth – whose team back then were mostly comprised of free transfers and non-league chancers – says victory that day at the Millennium Stadium rekindled Huddersfield’s flame. It has been burning slowly since.
“In my lifetime I’ve never seen us play at the top level. But after that Cardiff game we were going back in the right direction. That was where it all started,” said Booth.
The former striker, 43, today acts as a club ambassador. “We’ve had a few managers since, different chairmen, but we could easily be languishing in that lowest league,” he said.
“The longer you’re there, the harder it is to get out. You see some clubs even dropping out of the league altogether. Jacko was the one who started it and got the club back on the right path.” Football is a cruel game, but success can be as swiftly earned as failure. Just look at Leicester. Huddersfield had to do it the hard way. After eight years in League One and play-off heartbreak on three occasions, they finally returned to the Championship in 2012, beating Sheffield United 8-7 on penalties in another play-off final, this time at Wembley.
In that time Portsmouth had won the FA Cup, Fulham reached the Europa League final and Blackpool played a league fixture at Old Trafford. Quick success
has never been an option for Huddersfield. There has been no massive gamble, no frivolous chase for glory. The club are slow burners.
But the aim was always to return to the Championship. They did that. Never did they expect today’s Wembley playoff final with the Premier League as the prize.
But everything changed in November 2015 when David Wagner, as obscure then as Huddersfield’s Division Three play-off victory 13 years ago is now, arrived at the club.
He brought a swagger to the team that had not been seen in a generation. And Booth says the manager’s influence has got Town to where they are today. “In two weeks you could see he had made a difference to how the team played and how they trained. The thinking behind it,” he said.
“It has been a David Wagner effect, no doubt.
“We were hoping for a good season but when you look at what David did and how he built his team, he went about it very quietly.
“I presume deep down David was aiming for a top-10 finish this season. You certainly don’t expect this. Us Huddersfield fans, we’re always negative. If we can finish fourth bottom we’re happy – anything else is a bonus.”
Today’s opponents Reading finished ninth in Division One the season Huddersfield won in Cardiff. They have twice reached the Premier League – neither through the play-offs.
Booth would happily take a third penalty triumph.
“You’re 90 minutes away from promotion after a seasonlong effort,” he said. “All the sweat and toil, it comes down to this.
“I didn’t get nervous in many games but playing in one of those, the nerves are jangling.”