With the new season just a few days away, thisisthebarmyarmy.co.uk took the opportunity to team up with our feature writer David A Wood to offer his thoughts on the 08/09 season. A season that promises so much, but will it deliver in May 09?

Never before has a new season promised so much with the end result not in doubt before a ball is kicked. For come May 2009 Huddersfield Town Football Club will be under the ownership of a Town fan with the wealth to maintain at least a Championship team. Never before in our history, certainly not in the latter half of our 100 years, have both gone together.

The new lush turf of Leeds Road on that opening Saturday of the new season always creates a very special feeling, a tingling of hope and expectation more often dashed as the months progressed but it didn't matter for you were a Town fan and with it a life long affinity of affection dedication and undying love.

For one day it would happen, Huddersfield Town would be glorious again and in 1969-1970 for three fleeting seasons promise was realised.

That some 5 years later we were lower than we had ever been seemed cruel even by the worst fears of any football fan and for the past 33 years our club has battled without ever getting near to that pinnacle of May 1970.

To every Town supporter hope springs eternal that this year will be our year, the next Manager the one to lead us back to where we belong, his next signing the one to have the whole of football realising our Town is on the march again.

Age should bring a different prospective on life, a realism born out of years of trying yet sadly not succeeding. But where our beloved club is concerned the hope is always there.

As a youngster it is always just around the corner, a defeat is but a blip, tomorrow will bring the victory to turn my Town into the top team in football.

Looking towards a new season as we now do three dates seems to have much greater significance.

Two came very close together, sandwiched in-between my 10^th birthday, December 1959 and 15^th March 1960. The loss of Manager Bill Shankly was the Christmas present no Town fan wanted but as winter turned into spring my heart was well and truly broken when a certain Denis Law left Huddersfield Town for a British record fee. Still in short pants I was unable to conceive what this said about us, for to Town fans our Club was the best and we were destined one day for fame & fortune.

Where we not?

That the thrice-Champions had played before gates that never reached an average of 20,000 with just 20,829 watching the final home game of the triple success in April 1926 should have spoke volumes! But had we not seen crowds in the ten years after the second WW rise consistently through the 20,000's to peak in 1953/54 at 30,820 as Town finished 3^rd in Division One a lofty position still unequalled over fifty years on.

Promotions and relegation's would come and go but a position of Top of the League Division One after two games of the 1970/71 still remains the highest 'honour' Town would have to the present day.

Around this time a little lad, barely out of nappies, a native of the Spen Valley, who would graduate from the "Cow Shed" to the magnificent East Terrace, brings us to the third date. Only time will prove its place in the annals of our great Club. For the present April 10^th 2008 will be the most important day ever for current fans of the team who now play at the Galpharm Stadium.

For on this terrific Thursday the Examiner headline proclaimed 'Town Club Sold', the new owner a 40 year old self made businessman Dean Hoyle.

As Mr Hoyle took the title of Chairman-Elect and a position on the Board, with current Chairman Ken Davy remaining in place until the end of our Centenary Season, the two together made plans for the forthcoming season to be a re-birth of Huddersfield Town Football Club.

Just like he had built up his own Card Factory business from the bottom to over 400 outlets through out the UK, with the wealth of owning one of the fastest growing companies in the country he knew he personally could sustain the Club he had supported from a youngster.

Much has happened these past four months with a new Managerial team in place, almost a whole new team signed, and a Director of Business Operations now solely looking after the affairs of Mr Hoyle's, soon to be, Club.

As the weeks have progressed the new Gaffer has grown on Town fans, his signings steady if not spectacular but the very first action of the new Director is the one to provide such promise for the future of the Town.

A Centenary Season that can be watched for just £100!

Attendance's have rarely matched the Town fans belief of supporting a big Club so here courtesy of Mr Hoyle, not forgetting Mr Davy, was a real opportunity for all who have Huddersfield Town at heart to prove it. And get right behind our new young leader to be, and to be, 'All Together Now' in the re-birth of our club.

16,123 magnificent fans responded.

Record ever Season Ticket sales giving Town the base to make a real push for promotion in 2008-09 but even more to provide a spring board for future Town supporting generations to expand this base and make us the big Club we all aspire our Huddersfield Town to be.

'All Together Now'

Like no other time ever - the Club and the supporters as one.

Soon to be at the very head one of our very own, a lad who marvelled at Mally Brown and Dave Cowling. A guy who feels the pain of a Town defeat, who saw his Club slowly sinking and then decided enough was enough and put in his own hard earned brass to ensure a re-birth for the Terriers.

Mr Hoyle has given us a great opportunity, something most Town fans thought would never, ever occur. We know have the chance to go on and be that big Club we all love.

You the supporter must now do your part. Sing, cheer, support, and encourage like never before, for the whole 90 minutes of every single game. Come what may on the park and at times there will be problems, the performance less than expected, your own Dean Hoyle deserves that at least.

He has ensured the people charged with taking Town forward on the park have a Boss in Stan Ternent who will give everything to the cause. At times it will not be pretty, he is uncompromising is Mr T, a bruiser not to be mixed with for he hates losing. Just what we want from the lads in the shirt, 100% commitment, a pride in the stripes to equal the supporters and we are on our way.

Who in the last few years has worn our famous shirt with as much pride, as much passion, as our new assistant boss Rocket Ron?

When the going gets tough for our lads, let it be then that you the Supporter gets going. Believe me, when the chips are down, you really are the difference between Town pulling off an unexpected win, salvaging that vital point.

Dean Hoyle has provided all you could possibly ever dream about and then some, with the support of Ken Davy and Sean Jarvis, Stan Ternent and his staff will give all they can to ensure the players give of their best when on the field.

The rest is down to you.

You who will be there when the Manager and current squad are long gone, some of you have been there to feel the pain of losing Bill Shankly and the heart break of losing our star player who went on to become someone else's 'King'.

Now we have the opportunity to become that big Club, a real player in the game, a chance to join the so called big boys and on an equal footing, but only if we are

"All Together Now"

We hope you have enjoyed our "Those Were The Days" articles, and find them an interesting look at some special memories of Town through the years. Memories that will not, and can not be forgotten - and memories only our beloved Town could have created