Five conclusions on another failed season for Huddersfield Town

Well, there's not really any point talking about that Mansfield game, is there?

1. Huddersfield Town once again have a battle on their hands to win the fans back

“I could have been at home having a barbecue, yet here we are.”

— Unidentified fan, overheard at half-time

We doubt that person made it to the final whistle. Very few people did.

The sight of the Cowshed Loyal standing up en masse and departing for beers after Mansfield’s fourth goal in the 65th minute was a clearer message than any pre-planned protest with banners and chants could possibly have sent.

Like the rest of the crowd, they’d turned up despite the disappointments of the past few weeks and the confirmation on Tuesday night that Town would indeed miss out on the play-offs. Their intention, we presume, had been to stay until the end of the final game of the season to see the players off on their customary lap around the pitch.

Instead, by the time the players and staff started walking around the stadium with their families, there was just a single row or two of the most forgiving die-hards and kids waiting at the front of every stand. Even Jon Stead said afterwards that he couldn’t blame them.

It was as bleak and dispiriting a way to end a campaign as we have ever seen — and there’s still one game left to play.

Town shouldn’t be playing dead rubbers in April and May unless they already have promotion in the bag. Just phone up Wimbledon and see if they fancy putting on a panto or something instead, we say. (Oh no they don’t.)

The point that scene made was pretty serious. With one exception, Huddersfield Town have offered nothing but failure for eight years in a row. Still the fans have continued to buy season tickets in their thousands, take a big following away, and stand by the club when it would have been easy and forgivable to simply give up and wait for the good times to return.

But everyone has a breaking point, and this season might just have been it for many fans. A third season in League One for a club that was in the Premier League seven years ago is quite the decline, and there have been few signs that things are going to get any better. It’s been a series of promises of bread tomorrow only for the club to deliver crumbs.

Since the Kevin Nagle era began less than three years ago, Town have had six permanent managers, plus two reasonably lengthy caretaker spells. What’s more, they’ve fielded 71 different players in league games. Plenty of money has been spent on transfers and player wages, particularly by the standards of the third tier.

The result has been a relegation and two seasons in League One that have ended with mid-table finishes.

After a year, you could say they needed time to reset after drifting through a difficult and uncertain period just before the takeover.

After the second year, you could say Town had too many players they couldn’t move on and just needed to wait it out.

After three seasons, though, there really is no excuse. Martin Drury said as much on Friday afternoon.

“Excuses will land us in the exact same position in 12 months,” the interim head coach said. “Anyone who’s got an excuse needs to leave the club.”

Drury was talking about the players, but the same point applies up and down the hierarchy.

Kevin Nagle doubled down on this position around an hour after the final whistle on Saturday, writing: “No more flashy promises. After this statement, no more flashy words.

“We, starting with myself, David Threlfall-Sykes, and our staff, will work day and night this offseason to get it right.

“In three years, I’ve come to know the football you want to see. And it’s the same football I want to see: big, physical, front footed, aggressive, and able to hold leads late in the match.“

If Town are genuinely willing to face up to their failures, then good. That’s all you can ask for. But they’re going to have to be honest with themselves about what’s gone wrong, and find a way to fix it.

The fans are tired of waiting.