The match against Burnley tomorrow afternoon will be Huddersfield Town’s 52nd of a calendar year supporters will never forget.
Town’s 2017 started with a 1-0 victory at Wigan Athletic in the SkyBet Championship.
And a sign of how things have moved on at the John Smith’s Stadium, in the space of just 12 months, is that only one of that starting side against Wigan Athletic played against Stoke City on Boxing Day.
That player was Aaron Mooy - Town’s Player of the Year – then on loan from Manchester City but now a permanent member of David Wagner’s Premier League squad.
For the record, of the 51 matches played so far, Town have won 21, lost 19 and drawn 11.
Three of those draws were the most significant of the lot.
They were 0-0 at home to Sheffield Wednesday, 1-1 away to Sheffield Wednesday and 0-0 with Reading.
Not a lot to write home about there, apart from the fact those results came in the richest play-offs on the planet!
So two penalty shoot-outs – which have changed the club for ever – will live on in club legend, as will the names of loan Liverpool goalkeeper Danny Ward and, particularly, German defender Christopher Schindler.
Ward, of course, famously saved from Fernando Forestieri in the play-off semi-final second leg at Hillsborough, ensuring a 4-3 victory for Town in the shoot-out and a place in the final against Reading at Wembley.
Then, in the showpiece on Monday, May 29, following 120 goalless minutes and with 40,000 Town fans being put through the wringer of another shoot-out, Town were 3-1 down at one stage before Reading caved in, Ward saved another vital kick and Schindler delivered the decisive blow to take Town to the Premier League.
At that very moment, grown men, many in their 30s and 40s, who never thought they would ever see their beloved team play in the top flight of English football, broke down in tears.
Overcome with emotion, they whirled those blue and white striped shirts – and those with yellow and black hoops – around their heads and celebrated like never before.
It was the high point of a journey started by owner-chairman Dean Hoyle almost a decade ago – he photo-bombed the Examiner’s Facebook Live post from outside Wembley on the big day! – a journey which shows few signs of slowing as the club head into 2018.
That penalty sparked frenetic work at the John Smith’s Stadium, at the PPG Canalside training complex – where Town have downgraded their Academy to re-focus on youth recruitment – and in the transfer market to get ready for taking on some of the biggest names in world football.
Town’s £40m worth of spending is something the club had never been able to contemplate before landing around £185m of riches from their promotion, but new heroes like Laurent Depoitre, Tom Ince, Danny Williams, Jonas Lossl, Steve Mounie and Mathias ‘Zanka’ Jorgensen were brought in to join existing ones like Mooy, Jonathan Hogg, Tommy Smith, Michael Hefele and the rest of the promotion winners.
Lifelong fan Hoyle continued the feel good factor by issuing the cheapest season cards in the Premier League – and rewarded those who have backed the club continuously for the last decade with a £100 deal.
Just a magnificent gesture.
Sean Jarvis and the commercial team have built on that and the fans, too, have come to the party superbly, creating a positive and electric atmosphere for home matches.
More great memories are now being created in the top flight - with Town announcing their arrival with victories over Crystal Palace away (in their first top-flight match for 45 years) and at home to Newcastle United, in front of the live Sky cameras.
Since then, there have been wins over West Bromwich Albion, Brighton & Hove Albion and Watford away, in addition to the unforgettable John Smith’s success against Manchester United.
Those same grown men who’d been in tears at Wembley were now bouncing with joy as Mooy and Depoitre set up defeat for Jose Mourinho’s Giants.
Highlight of the regular Championship season in 2017 would pretty much have to be the February home victory over Leeds United, memorably sealed 2-1 with a last-gasp strike from Hefele.
Although many believe the 3-1 home demolition of Brighton – again in front of the Sky cameras and sealed with goals from Smith, Elias Kachunga and Nahki Wells (since sold to Burnley for £5m) – was Town’s best performance of that whole campaign.
Everyone will have their personal highlights, but two things are certain from the events of 2017.
Huddersfield Town have a financial platform like never before and head coach David Wagner – along with the chairman – has etched his own special place in the club’s rich history.
