Huddersfield Town Win the Johnstone's Paint Trophy

In my first season in charge of Huddersfield Town, I’ve managed to secure silverware in the form of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. It’s admittedly not a particularly high profile trophy; we’ve been to Wembley and won though, and had to see off some pretty decent teams to get there too. We were lucky to reach the finals really; winning three penalty shoot-outs to get there throughout the rounds. We showed our strength when it mattered though, winning both legs of the Northern final to see off Carlisle 5-2 overall, and then defeating Peterborough 2-1 in the Wembley final.

Bury, Morecambe, and Scunthorpe were the three teams we took penalties to defeat, and up until the Northern final against Carlisle we hadn’t actually won any games in the competition during normal time. A 3-2 away victory at Brunton Park soon changed that though, and when we comfortably won the home leg 2-0 our course was set to take on Peterborough at Wembley for the final.

When Theo Robinson was injured in the third minute of the final, I thought we might be in for a nightmare Wembley experience. Going into the game Robinson was our joint top scorer with Kevin Kyle, and with Kyle having been out several times throughout the season with knee, thigh, and heel injuries, and only one substitute striker on the bench; I had a dreaded feeling that we’d soon come a cropper with only one known striker on the field in the form of loan player Zoltan Harsanyi. Thankfully Kevin Kyle picked up no further injuries in this game though, and instead scored two goals in the 12th and 18th minute of the match.

Two early goals from Kevin Kyle were enough for us to win the game, and although Sergio Torres scored a 95th minute consolation for Peterborough; we won the game comfortably and lifted the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy for the first time in Huddersfield’s history. Kevin Kyle was named the man of the match, and with the team now unable to make the play-offs; I made sure that the fans had something to celebrate this season.

So here it is, visual proof that Huddersfield Town picked up the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy in front of a Wembley crowd of 56,425. Next season the plan is promotion, winning the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy satisfies me nicely for this season though, and should be enough to secure that I’m still the manager of Huddersfield Town next term. The team is strong, and during the summer I’ll be on the lookout for potential new signings to bolster the squad and ensure a push for the title next season. I’ve already got my eye on a few players I believe will serve me well, and it’s now just a case of bringing people in at the right price. We don’t have much to spend, there is some money there though, and potential loan players are also currently being observed.