TOWN’s new manager could be watching from the stands on Saturday.
That’s the view of fans’ leader Marcus Middleton, who believes the departure of Stan Ternent and his staff has come at just the right time for Town.
Spokesman for the Fight for Answers group, Middleton believes a sharpish appointment will give the new team chief enough time to assess Town’s League I prospects before the January transfer window.
And he’s not surprised there’s a massive sway among supporters for Town to get Adrian Boothroyd, who fits the ‘young and enthusiastic’ bill for chairman-elect Dean Hoyle, has been successful at Championship level and who has a background in Academy football in addition to being a former Town player.
“I think the change is brave and confident action by Dean Hoyle, who realises this is the time for such decision-making,” explained Middleton.
“It has come about through a mixture of things, not just results and performances but from rumours of all sorts of things going on behind the scenes and the fact that fans were getting more and more disgruntled.
“I’m impressed with Dean’s fortitude and fair play to Ken Davy, too, in realising things had to change and they had to change now.
“What the fans want to see from here is a settled period where a manager comes in with his own ideas and tries to build a dynasty.
“Everyone knows that managers expect to get the axe at some stage – unless they are Sir Alex Ferguson – but we need someone who can get things settled and produce reasonable performances.”
Middleton added: “We are Huddersfield Town fans. We don’t expect to see world beaters every week because this is Third Division football, but we do expect to see organisation, plenty of effort from the players, application from the staff and everyone pulling together to get things right.
“Everything was geared for this new era under a new regime at the club for things to take off, but it started with a whimper and they’ve had to act.
“There was some good football earlier in the season under Stan against the likes of Arsenal, Bradford and Sheffield United, but the squad has seemed a bit unbalanced with square pegs in round holes and that needs sorting.”
Middleton believes Boothroyd could be the man to do that as there have been “too many coincidences” in this week’s events for him not to be a contender.
“His name had come forward even before what’s happened in the last 48 hours,” said Middleton.
“Whoever it is, it wouldn’t surprise me if they were watching from the stand on Saturday, ready to take over for the trip to Leeds.
“We are 16th at the moment, but another two or three wins would carry us well up the table and if we can be, say, 10th by the time January comes around, within touching distance of the play-offs, we could still have a right go with maybe the odd new face in place in the squad.
“Town didn’t have to part company with Stan at this stage – there were no demonstrations or anything like that – so I can’t believe they haven’t got a firm idea about who they want to bring in.”
Town physio Ian Liversedge left the club yesterday by mutual consent.
The experienced medic was brought in by former manager Stan Ternent to replace Lee Martin for this season.
But following the departure of Ternent and his backroom team, Liversedge has also gone and will be replaced in the short term by Dave Buckley.
