TWENTY punctures and 242 miles later they are back in town.

The Huddersfield Town Pedal for Pounds team deserve to put their feet up and feel proud after a gruelling bike ride to Southend.

It’s thought the 22-strong team will have raised in the region of £50,000 for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance when they do their final count.

The team, including chairman Dean Hoyle and Town legend Andy Booth, arrived in Southend at around 1.30pm on Saturday.

Their mission was to arrive in time to watch Town kick-off their League I campaign against Southend United.

Marcus Middleton, chairman of Huddersfield Town Supporters’ Association, got back home on Saturday night.

He said: “I fell asleep on the way back I was that tired.

“My legs are killing. I’m resting up and hoping I’m going to be all right for work tomorrow.

“It was gruelling at times but we all stuck together and saw it through.

“The amount of punctures we had was funny!

“Between us we had about twenty punctures – one guy had six.”

Marcus said he has never done anything as challenging as the ride to Southend before.

He added: “I don’t think I will ever do anything like it again.

“Well, that’s how I feel at the moment, maybe I’ll feel differently in a few days.

“I’m just very proud of everyone who took part.

“We all stuck together and there was great camaraderie.”

The team left the Galpharm Stadium on Wednesday.

Chairman Dean Hoyle said: “I’m very, very sore, but we are all back in one piece.

“Three people got ill because when we were coming into Peterborough it was pouring down.

“We were cycling for four hours with water spraying up at us – so I think they may have got stomach bugs from that.

“It was a mixture of thrills, laughs and real endurance.

“Some days we rode 90 miles a day which was really gruelling.”

Along the way Hoyle fell off his bike in heavy rain.

The team also managed to get lost and had a 15 mile trek to get back on track.

They even landed themselves in trouble with law when they were stopped by Cambridgeshire police for cycling in rows of four.

The Pedal for Pounds bike ride raised money for the Keep It Up campaign which supports the Town Academy and Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

You can still donate by visitingwww.keepitup.org.uk or www.htafc.com, or text ‘KEEPITUP’ to 84010 to donate £3.