Dean Hoyle believes Huddersfield Town have a big point to prove on the opening-day of the Championship season.

The chairman – looking for a positive ‘step change’ this season after successive fights against relegation – is setting no targets except improvement for David Wagner and the squad.

But he believes the John Smith’s opener against Brentford presents an ideal opportunity to shine.

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“We’re less than two weeks away from the start of the season, when Brentford visit the John Smith’s Stadium,” said Hoyle, who has backed Wagner to make 12 senior signings this summer and improved PPG Canalside to a total tune of around £5m.

“As we know all too well, they finished last season very strongly (with a 5-1 win at Town’s expense)!

“After the final whistle on the last day of 2015/16, we all felt we had let ourselves down and we’ll be looking to put the record straight.

“Games at Newcastle and Villa follow on from that; two giants of the English game. What a way to start the new Championship season!

“Happy days, bring them on!”

Hoyle says 12 months of hard work have gone into reshaping the squad, but he has full faith in backing Wagner.

“I think it’s time for a step change,” he explained.

“The club needs to thrive, not just survive in the Sky Bet Championship.

“People can see we’ve invested on the pitch this summer – the amount we’ve invested in players during this window is probably a record for Huddersfield Town.

“There have been big changes in the playing staff, but we were prepared for that as loanees and other players left.

“We also aimed to make our squad bigger, given the end of emergency loans.

“We were unsuccessful last season in the January transfer window, but we have been working on the 12 players since last year right through to their arrival in Huddersfield.

“Chris Löwe came to the away game at Preston, Michael Hefele watched us play Burnley at home and Ivan Paurevic saw us win at Bolton, so these players have known their futures for a long time.”

Hoyle says investment in the squad and at PPG Canalside has been made to take the club forward, but there’s no pressure with regards to challenging at the top of the 2016/17 table.

“We have to be realistic over what a step change looks like for this club,” explained the owner.

“We all hope and dream about promotion – like every football fan – but there is no pressure on David and the squad to achieve this now.

“We simply want to take a step forward. We’ve set no internal target over a finishing position – instead, there is no limit on what we want this season.

“We’re simply striving to be better than we have been since returning to this level in 2012.”