We’ve done the impossible
Huddersfield celebrate £170m promotion to Premier League after penalty shoot-out drama
They came to Wembley with their “Terrier Spirit” and a “No Limits” mentality – and now, in the most dramatic of circumstances, Huddersfield Town are a Premier League club. They gained promotion to the promised land for the first time in 45 years and did so by giving this most nondescript of Championship play-off finals the most wonderful of endings.
They won on a penalty shootout, beating Reading 4-3 after 120 minutes of increasingly attritional football. But, then, there cannot be any surprise that a team with such a strong German influence – from the manager, David Wagner, to four players, triumphed on penalties. It was a German, Christopher Schindler, who scored the decisive spotkick and with it delivered the most lucrative stroke of a ball in the history of football.
There were no goals – the first time a Championship play-off final had finished goalless since the format was introduced in 1987 – but there was the ultimate goal. The big prize. A guaranteed £170 million for winning the richest game in world football and joining the big boys.
Huddersfield will be a brilliant addition to the Premier League with their desire to play front-foot football, their clear identity and their supporters, who cavorted with the players long after the final whistle and made a wall of noise throughout. They are a team. On and off the pitch.
The club’s owner, Dean Hoyle, was a study in emotion, the cameras cutting to him frequently as the teams cancelled each other out. When Schindler coolly rolled the ball into the net, the chairman melted in a crumpled heap of relief and raw emotion.
A good owner, a great heritage, a wonderful spirit, raucous, pulsating fans and a heavy-metal manager in Wagner – Huddersfield deserve this and it is hard to put into words just how magnificent an achievement it is for the self-styled “Yorkshire Club”.
But here are a few facts. Having finished no higher than 16th in the Championship, where they had the fourth-lowest wage bill of less than £10million, since winning promotion in 2012, they only narrowly avoided relegation last season after Wagner took over midway through. But such was the faith in him that he was awarded a new contract and the “Wagner Revolution” took off.
“It proves you don’t have to blow your brains to get promoted,” Hoyle said. “It’s a crazy world. Reading lost on penalties and that’s really cruel. The prize is big and I feel for them. It’s our turn. We deserve it because of the way we have done it. We can give lots of people hope, smaller clubs that keep believing – you can achieve the impossible.”
Huddersfield had finished fifth, their highest position since relegation from the first division in 1972, while Reading were third, but the winners were the better team here. Quite how equipped they are for the Premier League remains to be seen given that their two most talented players, Aaron Mooy and Izzy Brown, are on loan from Manchester City and Chelsea, respectively, while goalkeeper Danny Ward, who made such a vital save in that shootout from Jordan Obita, has also been borrowed, from Liverpool.
But that concern can wait, at least for one night, as can the fact that the past three Championship play-off winners have all gone straight back down. After 10 gruelling months and 49 hard-fought games, it is time to party.
The three best chances fell to Huddersfield and they should have been two goals up inside 10 minutes. The first opportunity arrived when Michael Hefele was allowed to reach Mooy’s free-kick but steered his header wastefully wide. Then there was a real sitter as Elias Kachunga crossed low for Brown, at the far post, who had only to tap
the ball into the net, but the 20-year-old sent it horribly wide from just a yard out.
The fear was that that would be the story. That Brown’s miss would claim the headlines and haunt him as the game unfolded, with Huddersfield sitting unusually deep, rather than pressing, as they paid due respect to Reading’s ability to keep possession.
Unfortunately, the game became somewhat turgid. The tension grew as the play began to shrink. Maybe there was too much at stake. Maybe, and let us be honest, there was too little quality for, as well as Huddersfield have done to get this far then so have Reading, who struggled before Jaap Stam took over, having flirted with relegation last season, and have hardly been big spenders.
For all of Yann Kermorgant’s clever work for Reading, and the creativity that Garath Mccleary provided when he came on, it was Huddersfield who continued to make the running, ensuring the result was justified.
Substitute Collin Quaner hacked wide and then, deep into extratime, the ball fell to Nahki Wells, who dragged a mis-hit shot.
So, it went to the shoot-out, with the advantage going to Reading as goalkeeper Ali Al-habsi saved from Hefele. Would that be the story? A German missing in the shoot-out? No, instead it was Huddersfield who held their nerve as Liam Moore blazed over and Ward blocked from Obita.
Finally, Schindler had his chance to sew up victory, with Wagner revealing the defender demanded to take the fifth kick just as the manager planned to turn to another Chelsea loanee, Kasey Palmer. “We said no limits and now we know what our limits are – the Premier League,” Wagner said, glowingly.
Every dog has its day and this was one for the Terriers.