Huddersfield Town expectation over ‘look and feel’ of performances this season

Town begin their League One campaign against AFC Wimbledon on Saturday

Huddersfield Town sporting director Chris Markham says “there is an expectation that the performances look and feel a certain way” this season.

The Terriers are set to get their League One campaign underway on Saturday, when they host AFC Wimbledon at Accu Stadium.

Town are entering their third season in the third tier, having recorded ninth and tenth-placed finishes following their relegation from the Championship in 2024.

Over the past two campaigns, Michael Duff and Lee Grant have been sacked with the Terriers placed seventh and sixth in the table respectively, and asked by BBC Radio Leeds whether Martin Drury’s tenure would be measured by the same yardstick, Markham said: “I think there’s more to it than just being sixth in the table, and I think of everything in terms of how that decision was made, and how it will be made, it’s very much a group discussion.

“This isn’t just me wielding an axe, or anybody really. We have a lot of positive conversations as a group – myself, David (Threlfall-Sykes, COO), Kevin (Nagle, owner), Michael (Thomas, director), other people who we value their opinions of, so in terms of that, we want to make sure that everything’s balanced, everything is done with the long-term goal in mind.

“In terms of what that is, I wasn’t at the club when Michael Duff was sacked, but I had brought a Bolton team here just before when we’d just sacked our own manager at the time, and I remember knowing that there were murmurs of discontent around the performances when I think the team were 16 games unbeaten at that time, so I think there is an expectation that the performances look and feel a certain way.

“I think six out of the seven games Martin and Jon (Stead) took last year looked and felt like stuff that Huddersfield Town fans and me want to see. I think the Blackburn game, the first one really in front of the home fans, looked and felt for a lot of the time against a Championship team like we’d want to see, so I think as long as we can see that progression, that the fans get what we’re trying to do.

“We’ve brought some players trying to get people off their seat – if we want to be a front foot, aggressive team who’s going to try and win, we’ve got to bring players in who can help us do that, so in terms of expectations and if we were sixth (in January), I think for me it’s ‘what does it feel like?’, as well as ‘what is the league table telling us?’

“The league table can lie at times during the season – I don’t think it lies after 46 games, but it can do at different times of the season.

“We’ve actually had really good conversations with Kevin during the appointment process for Martin around the need for stability, and Kevin’s been fantastic this summer really in promoting that. It’ll be easier said than done once the gloves are flying and we’re trying to duck and dive, but from us, there’s definitely an awareness of what we do want to become, and what we have been.”

Asked whether an entertaining season would be deemed successful if it ended in defeat in the play-off final, Markham added: “Yeah, because last season we finished ninth and the season before that we finished tenth, and nobody liked it.”

Markham returned to his boyhood club last November, and the sporting director added: “When [people ask] ‘what have you been brought here to do?’, a massive part of it is getting the connection back with the fans, that’s how I see it.

“That’s a huge task, and one that I’m really excited about, because I feel that it’s something that’s achievable, and doesn’t put too much pressure on everybody.

“I think it’s easy to see hopefully what the fans want, and if we’re still doing the same thing, and we feel the same – we’re not going to please everybody with our style of play, but in the next two to three years, if we’ve still got the same upheaval, if we’ve still got the same flip-flopping between styles and managers, and an identity, and something that we’re going after, then blame me.”