“What a horrible second half to the season this has been”

Huddersfield occupied a play-off spot in March but ended up finishing 14 points adrift of the top six, losing eight of their last nine matches

May 09, 2025

Friday 9 May 2025

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NEXT HOME GAME: Leyton Orient – Wednesday 14 May, 8pm

NEXT AWAY GAME: Leyton Orient – Tomorrow, 12.30pm

Dear County fans, Stopfordians, Huddersfield supporters, and anyone else from The Football Family joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Friday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore.

“Cheers mate, some funny bits in there.” That was my reply to Matt from And He Takes That Chance after I’d read his email yesterday. He responded with: “You say funny, I say painful.” Huddersfield were 4th when they beat us on Boxing Day, but suffered an utter capitulation in the final weeks of the campaign. The Terriers were still in the play-offs in mid-March – they thrashed Crawley 5-1 on the day we won at Bolton – but dropped out of the top six following a 4-0 defeat at Charlton in their next game and never looked like making it back, ultimately finishing in 10th place.

As you can see from the photos above, I was in the away end at the John Smith’s Stadium on Boxing Day. I was also at Edgeley Park on Easter Monday, with a great view of Ollie Norwood’s 87th minute penalty to keep our automatic promotion hopes alive. In fact, for the first time in my life, I’ve been to every single County game this season – all 54 of them! That number will increase to 56 this month with two games against Leyton Orient, and hopefully 57 if we can reach Wembley for the seventh time in our history. I’ve written a book about my adventures this season. If you’d like to support the publication by having your name printed in the book (along with a signed copy and a ticket to the book launch) drop me an email.

Today’s edition is sponsored by Lynx Taxis. A big thank you to Ehsan.

Thanks also to Gag N Bone Man Comedy who sponsor our Huddersfield Town content on the website.

Finally, I’m currently walking every street in Stockport to raise money for mental health charity Mentell. If you’d like to make a donation to help me reach my target, please click here.

Total distance so far: 253.75 miles

Total steps so far: 418,084

Total raised so far: £2,302

Total completed streets so far: 474 (Click here for the full list, which includes reports and photos from every day of the walk.)

Further information on the walk can be found by clicking here.

Des Junior

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Huddersfield’s play-off hopes came to an end after an Easter Monday defeat at Edgeley Park

Best moment of 2024-25?

The final whistle on the final day. What a horrible second half to the season this has been.

Worst moment of 2024-25?

The first whistle on the opening day…

No, there have generally been a lot of terrible moments. Having both of our local rivals in Leeds and Bradford celebrate after injury-time winners on the final day was typical of how we've been roshambo'd persistently throughout 2025. Losing at home to Northampton; getting piped 4-0 at Charlton in a must-win; sacking Michael Duff and replacing him with a youth coach; spending close to £3m on a striker for him to be injured immediately. We've had 33 players injured this season – there's never been anything quite like it. There are genuinely so many bad moments I can't just pick one. It's been gash, Des.

Funniest moment of 2024-25?

I think getting a penalty at home for the first time in four years and then missing it kind of sums up the season to a tee. We've now not scored a home penalty since 25 February 2020.

The Birmingham Boasters and the Wrexham Wazzocks seem to have annoyed a lot of fans in League One this season. Which one are you most glad to see the back of?

Rather selfishly I'm pleased to see them both go. Both big financial hitters who you'd always expect to be near the top. Hopefully it clears a path for us to spend our way to the top next season. But then again, we tried that this season and got it badly, badly, badly wrong.

Reform have been making a lot of noise recently. Based on this season, what’s in most need of reform at Huddersfield, on or off the pitch?

The leadership group in the dressing room. We need a new bunch of captains who want to play and fight for the club. We also need a new director of football to find them as we sacked ours, and we also need a new head coach because we sacked that one too and replaced him with the academy manager who wants his old job back.

Four Four Two had you down to finish 3rd, EFL pundit Gabriel Sutton thought you’d finish 5th, while the Opta supercomputer predicted you’d be 3rd. You finished 10th. Discuss.

We've had the worst injury crisis in the Football League bar none. We've been able to name an unchanged side twice and had every player in the squad injured for lengthy periods including all three goalkeepers. It's been a complete mess. The players have hardly trained since the turn of the year for fear of fresh injuries and they've looked unfit for it. Once Michael Duff went, a lot of senior pros who are out of contract in the summer seemed to take this as license to toss the rest of the season off. They’ve been utterly disgraceful and the club rudderless.

After conceding in the first minute, County lost at Huddersfield on Boxing Day (Photo courtesy of Mike Petch)

Huddersfield 1 County 0 in December. County 2 Huddersfield 1 in April. Thoughts?

We weren't great in either game and it could easily have been six points going your way this season.

Best away day of 2024-25?

Winning 2-0 at Peterborough on the opening day of the season felt like we'd cracked it with 45 games to go. We'd beaten a play-off side from the previous season in their own backyard very comfortably. Little did we know how wrong that assumption would be.

Cambridge away on Mad Friday before Christmas was also a good one. A 4-0 win on the road with our old nemesis Garry Monk sulking in the Cambridge dugout.

Which Huddersfield player is most deserving of his couple of weeks on the beach this summer?

None of them. They all deserve two weeks at the Hotel Rocamar.

Never mind Welcome to Wrexham on Disney+, a TV production company have just made Huddersfield Town: The Story of 2024-25. Which channel would it be most suited for?

I think it'd be in the deepest, darkest archives of BBC iPlayer filed under a new series of Casualty.

And finally, apologies for darkening the mood, but you’ve only got 30 seconds to live. Putin’s pressed the red button and we’re all about to die. You can have one last moment of pleasure, watching a single Huddersfield goal from this season. What you sticking on?

Nothing. Press the bloody button, Vlad! It's been shite.

➡️ Any Huddersfield fans joining us today? As stated above, I’ve written a book having watched every County game home and away this season. There’s obviously two big chapters on Huddersfield included (home and away). Also, as I celebrated my 40th birthday this season, I’ve written about my four decades as a County fan as well, which I’m hoping will be an enjoyable read for anyone who supports a lower league club. There’s memories of beating four Premier League clubs as County reached the Coca-Cola Cup semi-finals in 1996-97, the club’s rise from the National League North to the brink of the Championship over the last few years, and the tale of a trip to Blackpool 20 years ago when me and my mates had a run-in with armed police after a day on the ale…

If you’d like to support the book, click on the link below to become a paid subscriber and I’ll post you a signed copy with your name printed inside once it’s published.

Download the app for Lynx Taxis

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Avoid any hassle trying to get a taxi on your next shopping trip or night out, and download the Lynx Taxis app now.

➡️ Visit lynxtaxis.co.uk for further details.

5 questions with Graeme from Gag N Bone Man Comedy

What was the best moment with your business in April?

I held a fundraiser for my son's football team (Dewsbury Rangers under-15s) who I also coach, and we had Frankie Monroe, the winner of last year's Edinburgh Festival Best Newcomer Award. It was a superb night, raising much needed funds and giving us a great laugh after a difficult season.

What’s your plans for the business in May?

The biggest thing this month is that we have three shows at the Brighton Fringe next week. I have two solo shows and my friend Jonny Brook has one too.

What would you like to promote The Scarf My Father Wore readers this month?

In June we have a big show at Dewsbury Town Hall with Troy Hawke, who many will know from his work confusing Jack Grealish by telling him he has a fabulously symmetrical face, and the time he called Erling Haaland a fantastic nordic meat shield.

County are aiming to reach Wembley for the seventh time this month. How many times have you been, either for sport or music or anything else?

I’ve been three times as a Town fan, twice achieving promotion on penalties (against Sheffield United in 2012 and Reading in 2017), and missing out once against Forest in 2022 (ironically by being robbed of two stonewall penalties).

I’ve got Eddie Fortune headlining my next Desmond’s Comedy Club at the end of this month. If you won a fortune on the lottery, what would you spent it on?

I'd build a comedy club and employ all my mates.

➡️ Click here for the full list of forthcoming Gag N Bone Man Comedy gigs in Huddersfield, Derby, Batley and Dewsbury.

Photo(s) of the day

It’s Leyton Orient in the play-offs for County. Ahead of the first leg at their place on Saturday, I’ll be sharing all the photos from my last trip to Brisbane Road in February, when Kyle Wootton’s early goal gave County all three points in the capital.

Today in SK

🎶 DJ

Friday Night Disco at The Nelson Tavern (SK1). 8pm.

🍺 Food and drink

Bitter £2.30 a pint all day at The Cross Keys (SK8). Plus, discounts on certain lagers between 12pm and 6pm.

A number of venues are featured on The Scarf My Father Wore such as The Crown (SK2), The Dog & Partridge (SK2), The Steelworks (SK6), The Three Tunnes (SK7), Flute & Firkin (SK12) and The Ram’s Head (SK12). Support them this month by popping in for a few drinks and a bite to eat.

🎤 Karaoke

The Alexandra (SK3).

🎸 Live music

Soul Play at The Crown Inn (SK6). 9pm.

Chapter 9: Before the Whistle

After yesterday’s flashback, where the Chat GPT time machine took us back to the early days of Ben Hinchliffe, we’re back at Wembley today. County fan Danny Hartley and his daughter Lucy are up in the seats ready for kick-off.

Wembley shimmered under late-May sunshine, its white arch stretching into a blue sky like a promise. The concourse bustled with colour — County blue everywhere, wrapped around shoulders, tied like capes, painted across faces. Drummers banged out rhythms on overturned buckets. Kids bounced beach balls between rows. Grown men grinned like it was Christmas morning.

In Block 112, halfway up the east stand, Danny Hartley stood with his daughter Lucy beside him, one hand gripping the plastic back of his seat, the other clutching a bottle of water he hadn’t yet opened. It had been a long coach ride from Stockport, full of songs and nervous laughs and cautious hope, but now they were here. Wembley. The final. Ninety minutes from the Championship.

“Is it always this loud?” Lucy asked, wide-eyed, her blue and white scarf trailing down to her knees.

Danny smiled. “Not even kicked off yet.”

Below them, the pitch looked unreal — too perfect, like a video game. County players jogged out for the warm-up to a roar, Ben Hinchliffe leading the line with quiet focus. Danny gave a short, silent nod when he saw him. Still there. Still number one.

To their right, a man with a portable radio kept offering goal updates from the Premier League, though no one cared. This was their big day. There were lads in bucket hats chanting non-stop, older couples holding hands like they were teenagers again, and a young woman sobbing softly at the sight of the players walking out in their yellow warm-up tops — maybe for someone who couldn’t be there, maybe just because.

Danny’s mind flitted back — to Tuesday nights in the rain, to Tranmere away, to the time he swore he’d never come again after a 4-0 drubbing to Solihull Moors. But he had come again. Every season. Every setback. Every flicker of hope. That’s what supporting a club like this was. It wasn’t glamour. It was belief that refused to die.

Lucy tugged at his sleeve. “Do you think we’ll win?”

Danny crouched, looked her in the eye. “I think we’ll fight. That’s what matters.”

She nodded, accepting it like a promise.

Behind them, chants rose.

“Oh when the blues, go marching in…”

A flag with “Stockport til I die” rippled in the breeze. Someone set off a flare — just a little one, blue smoke curling above the crowd before it got whisked away by the wind. A steward shook his head, half-smiling.

The players finished their warm-ups. The announcer’s voice echoed around the bowl of the stadium, deep and booming, but hard to hear above the din.

Danny looked around — at thousands in blue and white, faces lifted toward the sun, full of anticipation, nerves, defiance. He saw men he’d stood beside on freezing terraces, women who’d carried the club through dark times, teenagers who’d only known the rise and thought it would always be like this.

They all knew different.

They all knew what it had taken to get here.

Lucy leaned into him as the teams lined up in the tunnel.

“Come on County,” Danny whispered.

And for a moment, before the whistle, time stopped — just a stillness, a breath held by ten thousand souls in blue.

Because this was it.

Wembley.

And they were ready.