Bright future from tough past for Giants

Nov 20 2008 by Chris Roberts, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

ALMOST 20 years ago to the day, Huddersfield Rugby League Club was on the point of collapse. Their famous Fartown ground was crumbling and there was a general feeling of apathy towards the club around the town. But at the 11th hour a consortium came to the rescue, with Mick Murphy and Jim Collins the key players, along with lifelong fan NEIL SHUTTLEWORTH, who has today relived those tough times and now believes the club can look forward to a very bright future.

MOMENTUM is starting to build for the Giants with the arrival of coach Nathan Brown and his new signings in readiness for the new Super League season.

And with the final date for the incredible season-ticket offer just a couple of days away, I thought perhaps many rugby league fans, both old and new, might like to hear something about the club’s tough recent history.

On our consortium taking charge in 1988, we appointed highly-respected Nigel Stephenson as coach and were helped by several clubs, in particular Featherstone Rovers, to put a reasonable squad together.

Inevitably, we started with a loss to Trafford Borough in a cup competition and then lost again in our opening League games.

But Nigel was starting to get his message across, and we all knew, we just KNEW, that the first win was not far away.