IT STARTED with a win and was followed by promotion via a thrilling Wembley play-off final and a push for the top of the Championship – whoever thought it would come to this?
Simon Grayson’s reign as Huddersfield Town manager came to a shuddering halt after a lunchtime meeting with Dean Hoyle, 339 days after it began and with the owner-chairman fearing a relegation scrap.
Appointed on a three-and-a-half year contract on February 20 last year, five days after Town had parted company with Lee Clark, Grayson was handed the task of guiding the club to promotion from League I.
After two failed play-off campaigns, Hoyle said he wasn’t sure Clark would be successful at the third attempt, and took the controversial decision to change managers with Town in fourth place.
Grayson, who would have reached his half-century of matches as Town manager at home to his former club Leicester in the fourth round of the FA Cup tomorrow, came with an impressive track record.
He had guided both Blackpool, in 2007, and Leeds (2010), into the Championship and established both clubs there.
The 43-year-old, who kicked off his Town tenure with a 2-0 home victory over Exeter, duly made it a hat trick of promotions as Sheffield United were finally seen off in that amazing penalty shoot-out in May.
The game was goalless after extra time, and all 22 players left on the pitch, including the goalkeepers, took spot kicks, with homegrown Alex Smithies emerging as the unlikely hero when he shot home – and opposite number Steve Simonsen blazed his effort over the bar.
Town were finally back in the second tier after 11 long years during which time the club went into administration and spent a season in the basement division.
With ambitious Hoyle underpinning a close-season recruitment drive, optimism was high, even after the £8m sale of star striker Jordan Rhodes on the final day of the August transfer window and the revelation that Town’s wage budget was among the five lowest in the division.
Having already recruited striker James Vaughan from Norwich, Grayson pulled off something of coup by bringing in Leicester goal-getter Jermaine Beckford, who played under him at Leeds, on another loan deal.
His summer signings were defenders Paul Dixon, Joel Lynch and Anthony Gerrard, midfielders Adam Clayton, Oliver Norwood and Keith Southern and winger Sean Scannell.
The boss certainly seemed to have found a successful formula as Town quickly found their feet in their new surroundings.
Although beaten 1-0 at current leaders Cardiff in their Championship opener, Town put up a gutsy fight in front of the Sky TV cameras, losing out to a late goal.
And when they made their second appearance of the season on the satellite channel, they won 3-1 at Blackpool, where Grayson was popular both as a player and then manager, to go second in the table.
Town remained in and around the play-off places into November, when they won 1-0 at Barnsley.
But their only win in 13 matches since was at Charlton in the third round of the FA Cup, and a meagre points tally of six from a possible 36 means they have dropped to 18th, seven points and four places above the drop zone.
The sequence of results included the 6-1 New Year’s Day drubbing at Leicester and Saturday’s dismal 4-0 loss at Watford, which proved the final straw for Hoyle, who recently revealed the club made a loss of £5.7m over their promotion season.
It’s clear that returning to League I would be a nightmare scenario, but much harder to fathom what has gone wrong over the last couple of months.
Grayson, whose 44 league games brought 15 wins, 14 draws and 15 defeats, has certainly been hit by suspensions and injuries, with both Vaughan and Beckford spending lengthy periods in the treatment room.
And Simon Church, brought in on loan from Premier League Reading in a bid to bolster the attack, failed to hit the straps.
A seldom settled team seems to be have been hit by a collective loss of form and confidence, and Hoyle has again decided decisive action was needed.
Having parted company with a manager for the third time (Stan Ternent left in November 2008) since becoming boardroom chief, Hoyle is now focusing on his third appointment, and despite the clamour in some quarters for ex-Southampton boss Nigel Adkins, is insisting the field is wide open.
In the meantime academy chief Mark Lillis and development coach Steve Eyre are in caretaker charge as Town prepare for tomorrow’s testing FA Cup clash with Leicester and then Wednesday’s crunch Championship visit of high-flying Crystal Palace.
Take a look back at Simon Grayson's Huddersfield Town career in picture by clicking the link below
