Huddersfield Town all but relegated to League One

The Terriers are still mathematically unconfirmed but Plymouth Argyle are realistically uncatchable on the final day.

Huddersfield Town have been all but relegated to League One after failing to get the what they needed against Birmingham City to force things to go to the final day.

Mathematically Town are not yet confirmed for the drop, but they would need to make up a 15-goal swing in goal difference to overtake Plymouth Argyle on the final day.

Town knew they would need to win to keep any hope alive if Sheffield Wednesday emerged victorious over West Brom – and their Yorkshire rivals went ahead in the first half (eventually winning 3-0) to confirm the full three points were likely to be needed.

That uphill battle grew steeper after Birmingham took the lead late in the first half through Koji Miyoshi’s strike, but Rhys Healey’s equaliser less than two minutes after the restart ignited hope that the required comeback might actually be on.

But despite having the visitors under heavy pressure for almost the entirety of the second half, Town were unable to find the second goal they needed for their final-day trip to Ipswich to have any realistic stakes.

Once formally confirmed, it will mark the first time since 2012 the club have dropped out of the top two tiers of English football.

It has been a deeply disappointing season for the Terriers, especially in light of the renewed optimism that surrounded the club following last season’s sensational end to the campaign and the arrival of new ownership in the shape of American businessman Kevin Nagle.

However, far from carrying any momentum into the new season from last year’s brilliant escape under Neil Warnock – who subsequently returned to the club once more in the summer – Town have struggled with many of the same issues throughout a difficult season.

Their error-strewn performance in defeat to newly-promoted Plymouth Argyle on the opening day was a sign of things to come for a side that has conceded all too readily this season, with a particular tendency for shipping late goals in great numbers.

The club were meanwhile unable to bring sufficient creativity or firepower to their front line, resulting in a fleet of 1-1 draws – particularly under Darren Moore, who controversially replaced Warnock in September.

Town attempted to address that issue, as well as their vast injury list, by bringing in new attack-minded signings in the January transfer window, but they have been unable to have the impact the club would have wanted.

Relegation now makes for an uncertain future for a club with self-professed ambitions of returning to the Premier League. The financial hit of dropping down a division will necessarily require a scaling back in their ambitions.

Current head coach Andre Breitenreiter, who arrived in February, last week refused to speak about his future at the club or whether he has one, simply saying that is a matter that will be discussed internally once the season is over.

Either way, Town will likely struggle to hold all of their most important players, and will need to think carefully about any offers they receive or any contracts they are going to offer to make sure they are able to remain financially robust yet still capable of challenging for promotion next season. It is a difficult balancing act.

How it will affect their plans off the field – particularly when it comes to acquiring control of the John Smith’s Stadium – and what their inevitable loss of revenue will mean for jobs and the club’s place in the community are more serious matters that will only become clear over time.

For now, though, the fans and the club alike will be left to reflect on how they have ended up as a third-tier club just five years after their relegation from the Premier League and just two after going to close to making a top-flight return by finishing third in the league before losing to Nottingham Forest in the play-off final.

There are no simple answers there, but rather a combination of factors over the past few years: tumultuous times with the club’s ownership; the loss of key players without adequate replacement; Carlos Corberan’s abrupt resignation followed by a revolving cast of managers and head coaches, some of whom simply were not up to the job.

We have seen in the stands and in social media that the fans are far past merely fed up, and most will now demand both words and, above all, actions from the Nagle regime to at least offer some hope that they will set themselves up to push for immediate promotion back from the third tier.

More than that, they will expect the club to learn from the many mistakes that piled up into serious issues over the years and led them to fall back into League One.