Ollie Turton's proud moment ruined as Huddersfield Town left with nothing to be happy about

Huddersfield Town defender Ollie Turton acknowledged it was “hard to be happy” as the right-back made his first start for more than 14 months on the day his side’s Championship fate was all but sealed. Turton, who had played just a few minutes of the campaign at Bristol City a couple of weeks prior, was brought into the starting line-up against Birmingham City on Saturday.

The defender managed to play 79 minutes of the 1-1 draw at the weekend, in what was his first start since the right-back ruptured his ACL against Wigan Athletic in February last year. However, his first start ended in disappointment, as the Terriers could not find the win they needed to stay up, with their relegation to League One now all but confirmed.

Turton spoke of his delight at making his return, but acknowledged that it was difficult to be positive in the circumstances. “It’s very bittersweet for me,” Turton told BBC Radio Leeds.

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“Obviously it’s been a long time for me not playing, and then to play my first game, I felt like it was a proud moment for me. Obviously the flipside is that it’s not the result we wanted, and the end result’s not good for us and we’ve been relegated. It’s been a real tough 14-15 months for me, but I was so looking forward to be playing, and I was so happy I was on the pitch. It’s been a lot of hard times, but I was just delighted to be on the pitch. It’s hard to be happy, just obviously because of the end result.

“It’s a very quiet dressing room. I think the lads fully felt that we could get a result today, and get ourselves out of the situation. It was always going to be a tough ask. If it was in different circumstances, we’d come away from that game thinking it was a decent performance, we just couldn’t find the goal. Obviously the end result, it takes away any positives really from the game.”

The Terriers now find themselves facing a first campaign at League One level since 2012, with Town three points inside the relegation zone with a game left to play, but having a vastly inferior goal difference to fourth-from-bottom Plymouth Argyle.

Although Town haven’t been at third-tier level for some time, Turton featured for Blackpool in League One as recently as 2021, with the defender helping the Tangerines to secure promotion via the play-offs before departing the club to join the Terriers in the summer of that year.

The defender also played for Crewe Alexandra in the third tier prior to joining the Seasiders, and while Turton expects the Terriers to have some challenging fixtures next season, the right-back is fully focused on ending this year’s campaign on a positive note, with his side taking on promotion-chasing Ipswich Town away from home on the final day of the season on Saturday.

“It’s still a very tough league, still lots of very good teams,” Turton said of League One. “I’d like to think that we come into the season next season with a fresh start, and hope to do very well in the league. It’s more concentrating now on just getting ourselves right for next week. Once that’s done, we can think about next season.

“I’ve still got another year on my contract, so I don’t think there’s going to be any changes there. I love playing here, the club’s been unbelievable for me, even through the hard times of obviously the past 15 months say. I love playing for the club. I’d just apologise to all the fans, it’s been a real tough year for everyone, for all the fans. It’s not been nice for them, but hopefully next week we can finish the season on a bit of a nicer note for them.”