Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew believes Huddersfield Town can be Championship contenders in 2014/2015 after watching the Terriers hold his side to an absorbing 2-2 draw at the John Smith's Stadium .
Town finished their preparations for the new season in positive fashion as goals from Radoslaw Majewski and Jon Stead cancelled out Emmanuel Riviere's opener, but Remy Cabella would have the last word with an impudent chip over Joe Murphy late on.
And Pardew believes Mark Robins and his side are well-equipped to pursue lofty ambitions this season.
"We coped with it [the game] quite well because Huddersfield had some good players," the Toon boss said.
"Like all Championship sides it is very difficult to know where they are going to finish in the league.
"They could be contenders and they could be good."
Pardew's charges were in action at the weekend in the Schalke Cup and played two matches in as many days as they toiled in a 3-1 defeat by Malaga before beating the Bundesliga hosts by the same scoreline.
Six of the players who started the match against Schalke on Sunday also played from the outset at the John Smith's Stadium and Pardew admitted it was a gruelling test for his players.
"We knew at the weekend it was going to be a tough schedule for the four teams involved," he continued.
"Back to back is tough.
"We took this game on a Tuesday because it was a fatigue game for us to play under fatigue."
