Big positive of Terriers tempered by too many Yorkshire negatives

FIRST the positives from a season for Yorkshire football that has, at most, two hours to run.

Huddersfield Town’s survival against all the odds was not just a welcome blow on behalf of clubs everywhere who cannot rely on the deep pockets of an oligarch or an entire gulf state awash with petro-dollars.

It also ensured Premier League representation for the county once again next term, Middlesbrough’s own bid to rejoin the elite having floundered in the play-offs. For that alone David Wagner and his band of heroes deserve the very highest praise.

Rotherham United will this Sunday be looking to emulate the Terriers in achieving their season’s No 1 goal when Paul Warne’s men tackle Shrewsbury Town at Wembley in the League One playoff final.

A repeat of the Millers’ triumph under the Twin Towers 22 years ago against the same opposition in the Auto Windscreens Shield would do nicely, not least because otherwise this Football League campaign has been pretty desperate for those of a White Rose persuasion. Which brings us on to the negatives from a season that, at least initially, promised so much.

Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday failed miserably to build on what had been encouraging 2016-17 campaigns, while until a late upturn in form Hull City threatened to crash into the third tier just 12 months after being a member of the Premier League.

Barnsley did go down, while even Boro reaching the play-offs came with the rider that last summer had brought not only a £45m plus outlay on transfers, but also chairman Steve Gibson’s boast about how Boro would ‘smash’ the Championship following relegation. Against that backdrop another year at this level can only be viewed as a disappointment.

Bradford City are another club unlikely to look back on the season with any fondness, even allowing for the club being fifth on New Year’s Day and boasting the best away record in the Football League.

An 11th-place finish was a huge letdown after reaching the playoffs in each of the two previous campaigns. That it came on the back of a horrible collapse in form that cost Stuart McCall his job merely added to the bleak mood around Valley Parade that will take some shifting.

Elsewhere in League One, Doncaster Rovers will be satisfied with a lower-half finish, but again there was a sense of ‘if only’ at the Keepmoat Stadium after two lengthy winless runs in 2018.

This leaves us with Rotherham and the fine job done by Paul Warne. Twelve months ago the Millers slid out of the Championship in ignominious fashion.

Relegation having been confirmed with a whopping seven games remaining, the relief caused by a draw on the final day that meant Rotherham would avoid equalling a League record 34 defeats in a single season spoke volumes for just how desperate things had become at the New York Stadium.

At the time it felt like the Millers might take years to recover, but Warne has smashed that assertion. One more victory at Wembley this Sunday and the mission will have been accomplished.

Here fans of all 10 Yorkshire clubs give their end-of-season verdicts to