Simon Trevitt is a man who has done it all – not only playing for his boyhood club but also representing them at Wembley.
Yet despite all the achievements, Huddersfield Town’s former right-back is still struggling to come to terms with the club’s most recent success – promotion to the Premier League.
“It’s still not really sunk in - I never thought I would see it in my lifetime” says the chipper former player who speaks to the Examiner after finishing his round as a postman in Birkenshaw.
Now aged 49, Trevitt still watches Town home and away whenever work permits, but his playing career and life after football is so far removed from the current riches and wealth the modern game brings.
However, when the contrast is raised Trevitt is quick to reply with no bitterness or remorse, but genuine pleasure the club he has supported all his life is currently doing so well.
“The lads now will never have to work again and you can’t blame them for taking that opportunity – there was a bit of money about when I played but certainly not to the same extent.
“I always say to my Dad he had me too early, he should have had me 15 years later so I wouldn’t be walking around with a bag on my back every morning now.”
As a first year professional under Mick Buxton back in 1986, Trevitt was on £90 a week – small change to today’s players and even the majority of Academy prospects.
“Money’s not everything though,” insists Trevitt. “And today with all the social media and changes in training and fitness players are a lot different – they almost live in their own bubble.
“I remember we used to go out after the game and have a drink, we played at a time when there was more freedom.
“I definitely wouldn’t have changed it – I remember Neil Warnock used to fine players if they didn’t go out and have a pint on a Wednesday with the rest of the group!”
A staunch Huddersfield Town fan from an early age, Trevitt stood on the terraces on Leeds Road as a 13-year-old watching his heroes perform to an adoring crowd.
A few years later he was sharing a dressing room with them – a surreal experience he still remembers clearly to this day.
“I actually started as a junior apprentice at the age of 16 as a central midfielder,” recalls Trevitt.
“Sadly I didn’t have enough awareness to play there and soon moved to right-back and the rest was history.
“The position was made for me – I had a bit of pace and I loved going forward.
“A few years later I was sharing a changing room with my heroes which was both an unbelievable and strange experience for a Town fan.”
Trevitt spent nearly a decade at his boyhood club, racking up more than 200 appearances for the club as well as featuring in Huddersfield Town’s historic Second Division Play-Off Final success in 1995.
Similar to the Class of 2017, that side endured penalty shoot-out drama in the Semi-Final second-leg away at Brentford with Trevitt more relieved than most Darren Bullock’s final penalty struck the back of the Bees net.
“It was nerve-wracking to say the least, Darren Bullock got the winning goal and I am so grateful to him that he did,” reveals Trevitt.
“Otherwise it would have been sudden death penalties and I was second in line to take one.
“It’s alright for a full-back to practising penalties in training but doing it for a place at Wembley – I didn’t fancy my chances.
“I really didn’t like the thoughts of going back to Huddersfield as the man who missed the decisive penalty so I literally blew that ball over the line.”
So how does his Play-Off penalty shoot-out experience compare to the drama which unfolded at Wembley against Reading FC back in May?
“There’s no bigger penalty in football - £180m for one kick of the ball,” said Trevitt.
“And the way Christopher Schindler stepped-up and dispatched it, showing no nerves whatsoever.
“As cool as ice and the mark of the man after such a great season.”
That Wembley win immortalised the current crop into Huddersfield Town folklore but despite all the success Trevitt still believes the heroes of yesteryear should also be acknowledged.
“Of course today’s players are a lot fitter than we were with all the sports science and top diet,” the former full-back said.
“But at the end of the day, a full-back is a full-back and as long as you can get up and down the field then there isn’t too much to worry about.
“Mally Brown would have fitted in well in the current side and I would have loved to play in the current formation under David Wagner.
“Nowadays I just sit there and watch and just wish I was a bit younger!”
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