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Huddersfield Town Land a Gem

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Mark RobinsDean Hoyle, the chairman at Huddersfield Town has demonstrated an unmistakeable ruthless streak when it comes to deciding a manager has run his course at the John Smith’s Stadium.

To many impartial observers the decision to sack Lee Clark 12 months ago with the club four points away from an automatic promotion place, and having lost only 3 of their previous 55 league matches – a spell which included a 43 game undefeated run – was jaw dropping.  As is often the case however, when the counsel was sought of those who watch Huddersfield weekly, and hold the fortunes of the club close to their heart, dissatisfaction with on-field matters was not an uncommon state of mind

A man who craved an escape from League One, Hoyle pragmatically cast aside statistical achievement and focused on tangible progress.  Clark had overseen successive play-off disappointments, and his chairman couldn’t countenance the risk of a repeat.

When Simon Grayson, the man who steered Leeds United out of League One, was appointed to replace Clark his remit was plain.  Championship football was expected, preferably without the need for the stomach churning play-off experience.  Ultimately the first target proved beyond the Terriers as they finished a full 12 points adrift of second place.  Nevertheless, Grayson succeeded where his predecessor failed, and thanks to a tortuous Wembley penalty shoot-out triumph against Sheffield United, Huddersfield were back in English football’s second-tier.

Seven games into the new season Grayson had led his charges to second place, having suffered defeat only once – that against the division’s outstanding team, Cardiff City.  Surely, this was a manager cementing his roots for some time to come?  Not so.  Twelve matches without a win between November 17th 2012 and January 19th 2013 resulted in Huddersfield slipping to 18th place, and caused Hoyle enough angst to decide that Grayson – promotion winner or not – was no longer the man to lead his team.

Now the ambitious chairman has succeeded where Doncaster Rovers and Blackpool both failed, by luring the exceptional Coventry City manager, Mark Robins, to West Yorkshire.

Prior to his brief spell as boss at the Ricoh Arena, Robins had established a strong reputation through his work at firstly Rotherham United, and then Barnsley.  Having established the Millers as League Two promotion candidates during his first full season at the helm, a play-off spot would have been earned in the second term without an F.A. imposed 17 point deduction.

Robins’ first task at Barnsley – which he comfortably surmounted – was similar to that which he now faces at their Yorkshire rivals – to guide the club away from trouble at the foot of the Championship, albeit the Tykes were sat firmly at the bottom upon his appointment.  After a moderate second campaign Robins departed Oakwell and was without employment for 16 months.

The sudden rise in the 43 year-old’s stock, and his implied belief that Huddersfield offer a greater opportunity for future development than the Sky Blues, both speak of the remarkable speed with which fortunes can change in football’s unique world.

When Coventry were last successfully negotiating a Premier League season in 1999/2000 and employing players of the calibre of Robbie Keane, Gary McAllister, and Chris Kirkland, Huddersfield were finishing in 8th a division below.  City were relegated a year later, an unwelcome feat matched by the Yorkshire outfit who won just eleven of 46 league matches to be drop into the old Division Two.  There, Huddersfield’s astonishingly brief two year stay saw them slip straight through to the bottom rung of the English league structure.

Indeed, during Coventry’s 44 year unbroken presence in the top-flight the Terriers spent only two years as the West Midlands club’s equals.  Furthermore, that period included Coventry’s wonderful F.A. Cup triumph in 1987, winning one of the competition’s greatest finals against Tottenham Hotspur.

The steady rejuvenation of Huddersfield since their 2003 nadir, and especially the continuous development that has been in place since Hoyle was appointed chairman in June 2009 is something that the Yorkshireman will not accept sacrificing.

Now bound by suffocating annual rental costs on their Ricoh Arena home, and competing at their lowest level since 1964, the Sky Blues’ sharp decline has been staggering.  Stricken by financial hardship and hampered by a late season transfer embargo, Coventry were eight points short of retaining their Championship status last term.

When Andy Thorn began life in League One with three draws, having seen his side lead on each occasion, the ex-Crystal Palace defender’s employers decided the time was right for change.  This led to much of the familiar plaintive wailing often heard when a ‘football man’ and popular figure loses his job.  One interview in particular on Talksport’s Keys & Gray show, painted Thorn as a man who had been facing a challenge at the Ricoh which was on par with stabilising the Greek economy.

When Robins took charge 24 days after Thorn’s removal, his new club had lost all four of their intervening league matches, and any optimism at the Sky Blues didn’t extend beyond hopes of avoiding successive demotions.  Almost instantly, the new man set about revising expectations.

Coventry quickly recorded wins against Oldham Athletic and Bournemouth, results now cast in even more impressive light by virtue of those two clubs recent accomplishments in cup and league respectively.  More recently, the Sky Blues were starting to demonstrate an entertaining penchant for goal-scoring.  Among those to feel the force of Coventry’s prolific surge have been in form Walsall who shipped five at the Ricoh, and high-flying Doncaster who suffered a 4-1 reverse on their own ground.

Such has been the upturn in Coventry’s results that the team which were only off the bottom of the table owing to a superior goal difference over Bury when Robins arrived now sit 8th, 7 points away from a play-off berth.

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