Huddersfield Town, End of Season Notes

12:50p.m., Sun 3 May 2009

This season has been the first season in 18 that I haven't seen a single Huddersfield Town performance.

But for a thoughtlessly planned holiday I'd have travelled to Leyton Orient to see Andy Booth's final appearance in a Town shirt. But it was not to be.

The reason is just that ever-dwindling attendances and staff revolutions at the club mean that many of the Town team are players I'm not familiar with. Of that starting XI at Orient, only the Clarke brothers, Booth and Michael Collins are players' I've seen play before.

Added to that I've never believed at any point this season that Town had a realistic chance of breaking into the play-offs. It's been a good season in Coca-Cola League 1, with plenty of strong teams chasing for promotion. I never thought that Town could be as strong as Leicester, Peterboro, L**ds United, Scunny, Millwall or Tranmere (you could add Oldham to that list too, despite the fact that Town finished above them in the table - there was extenuating circumstances).

I'm excited at the prospects for next season though, given that new manager Lee Clark's signings look good so far - Lionel Ainsworth & Anthony Pilkington - and he'll no doubt have a substantial budget to replace Danny Cadamarteri. The signings of young non-league stars Lee Novak & Tom Denton is also encouraging. Plus there's trips to Southampton, Charlton, Brentford and, maybe, Norwich to look forward to.

There's a possibility too, that Town *could* compete. The top teams I mentioned earlier haven't had a lot more than most other clubs, but each of them has had one or two performers that really lift them above the ordinary - a Matty Fryatt, Lee Hughes, Jermaine Beckford or an Aaron Wilbraham. 

On the man Booth, it's been a pleasure to follow his career. He's a man I claim to have played against in schools football, although I suspect that I was probably an unused substitute and I don't remember Booth at all - he was a late developer on the pitch maybe. I've seen him turn in some memorable performances in a Town shirt though and score some memorable goals. The ones that really stand out are from the 94-95 promotion season - an equaliser at a rain-sodden Whaddon Road as we scraped a draw against Crewe and an equally rain-sodden goal at Wrexham's archaic Racecourse Ground as Town turned a 1-0 half-time deficit into victory. Plus, there's the Wembley goal in the play-off final. His second spell at the club has been less spectacular but no less committed. He's scored 150 goals in 452 appearances which puts him 3rd in the all-time top-scorers and 4th in the appearance list. Booth's contribution is unlikely to be eclipsed too many times, if at all, in my lifetime. It's been a pleasure and an honour to have watched him play.