Nigel Clough claims Huddersfield Town's improbable promotion to the Premier League last year has helped push the standard of football in the Championship.

The Terriers earned a top-flight spot after a play-off final penalty shootout win over Reading in May, despite being tipped for relegation at the start of the season.

And this, according to Clough, has led to 'lesser' Championship sides believing they can recreate that miraculous feat, therefore pushing the quality of football in the second tier upwards.

Clough told the Burton Mail: "If I asked you right now who is going to win the league and who is going to be the top two from so far, could you?

"There's the top six, plus the ones outside.

"You don't rule out Derby County. They're in the bottom half, and you wouldn't rule Derby out for automatic promotion.

"Already there's 15 or 16 teams chasing three places.

"I blame Huddersfield!

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"Huddersfield's achievement is what has led to a lot more teams, like Huddersfield, saying, 'well if they can do it, we can do it'.

"Blackpool did it 10 or so years ago and everybody said, 'why can't we do a Blackpool?'

"It happens once every 10 years or something.

"But all the clubs of Huddersfield's sort of size are sitting there, they've invested heavily and thought, 'if they can do it, we've got a chance'."