Why do we Support Town?
By Crumbs from the Kilner by Jimmy BiscuitsFan Opinion Although perhaps not a question that would trouble Socrates (the ancient Greek philosopher or indeed the chain smoking, MD holding, midfield Maestro of the famed 1982 Brasil side), it is a question that I have pondered more than once in my thirty plus years of watching Town play. Sadly, often whilst trudging up the steep steps as I exited whatever the Kilner bank Stand was called that season, in the rain, after a thoroughly miserable performance and defeat to Northampton or Wycombe. Or having had to endure another couple of hours watching Kiegan Parker, Georgios Donis, Ishmael Miller or Adama Dia**aby (I still can’t bring myself to type his full name just yet) run around as aimlessly as Dion Charles’s attempted efforts on goal.
It’s a question I was asked when I moved over to Manchester with a girlfriend in the year 2000… “why though mate?” I could have pretended to have been a Manc and City tickets weren’t hard to get for Maine Road back then. Why continue to support a team that sold its best striker to a rival and then started a spectacular nosedive down the leagues whilst insisting on reinstating Mick Wadsworth rather than paying him off. Surely something was drastically wrong with me!
Well, the answer is I just had to. Huddersfield Town and teams like us, from Portsmouth up to Middlesbrough, have a certain core fan base that will turn up week in and week out whatever the weather or manager or quality of badly scouted player.
Although of course I’m not discounting the fans that for whatever reason can’t attend games. I’ve been in that position myself and remained a supporter. I’d imagine the reasons for all our support, in whatever capacity, is based on one, some or all the following reasons I’ve come up with in my many forced “Philosophy of the Terrier” Sessions.
I’d be willing to bet that most of us support Town because we have some kind of connection with the local area of Huddersfield itself. Like me you might have been born here. Or your parents might have. Perhaps you moved here as a kid or came for university or work. I’m also happy that we seem to have picked up fans from all corners of the globe due to our time playing at the highest level of English football. No, not the 1969/70 West Riding Senior Cup Final…
This is massively important supporters of teams like Town. It’s where we derive our identity. It’s part of our club DNA. It’s no accident that the Terrier was chosen as our mascot 45 years ago and continues to sit atop our crest (albeit in a slightly more aerodynamic form since 2018). Huddersfield has always been seen as a very working-class town populated by men, women and, to be fair, children, which embodied the concept of “Yorkshire Millstone Grit.” It’s also no surprise that David Wagner chose to promote and instil that identity into his players which so very quickly transmitted itself to and was then embraced by the fans. No one that attended a game under David Wagner and Co during their tenure is likely to forget the palpable feelings of togetherness and determination that could be felt all around the ground and the town centre on a match day!
However, there are other ingredients to the glue that bonds supporters to the club. Pride is one such ingredient. We as fans are rightly incredibly proud of our heritage and history. Who hasn’t boasted about our Triple Crown success one hundred years ago down the pub or in school? Whose Grandad or Dad, as mine did, told them stories of towns 1969/70 Promotion-as-champions Season and the following two years spent in the old First Division? Tales of Red Miners helmets away at Anfield and the train to Old Trafford. Watching the likes of Best, Emlyn Hughes and Martin Peters at Leeds Road. Just as a lot of us talk and will talk in the future about those more recent Wagner memories.
But of course, those highs are few and far between. About 50 years between unfortunately, which means part of that fortitude and grit and determination must be used to get us through the lean times. One such way that I’ve witnessed over the years at games at work as well as in online spaces such as this one, is the ability our supporters have to engage that dry and dark sense of Yorkshire humour we seem to possess. The willingness to laugh at ourselves. To decry the choice to play a striker at left back or to stop selling Yorkshire pudding wraps at the concession stands with a shrug a knowing look to the person next to you and a “typical Bloody Town….”
So that’s my answer. It’s the connection to the town. It’s the pride in our shared history and our triumphs as well as how we endure the tough times. Many of us remember sticking our loose change or more into buckets to help save the club back in 2003 of course. It’s our shared humour and camaraderie that helps us through those tough times and keeps people coming back. It’s what allows us to say, “We are Town fans.” It’s what holds us together.
It’s why I finish every town related text with my old man with an UTT and he does the same.
It’s just how it’s supposed to be.
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