If you want to know how Huddersfield emerged from the Championship pack to play in the richest game in English football, look no further than goalkeeper Lee Nicholls.
Not just because he has emerged as the steadiest hand of a team with one of the best defences in the second tier with 19 clean sheets and a place in the PFA team of the season. But because he represents the apex of the Terriers brilliant recruitment strategy.
A club that hasn’t got a budget to match many of its promotion rivals has made a point of recruiting character and potential, which is what led them to Nicholls, who spent most of last season warming the bench at MK Dons.
Huddersfield’s head of goalkeeping Paul Clements knew Nicholls from his time playing for England sides in his youth and wondered why his career “had fallen off a cliff”. But a summer meeting convinced him that he was a rough diamond who could transform Huddersfield.
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“There was a lot of things that went into what happened at MK Dons – two or three or four things that tied together to create it. I lost someone really close to me and mentally I wasn’t there to be honest,” he tells i.
“I lost my brother-in-law who was more or less a brother to me. It was sudden – a heart attack – and the whole family took it really tough. I came back into pre-season not in the shape I needed to be and the season just went from there. I was on an uphill battle from there I think, to be honest.
“Then I got offered a new deal and I turned that down and I think then the club wanted to prepare for the future so they brought in another goalkeeper [Andy Fisher]. He was playing well so I didn’t have a leg to stand on and I just pushed him, supported him and tried to help the team.
“By the end I was ready for a move and I wanted to test myself in the Championship again – so Huddersfield came at just the right time.”
It is a testament to Nicholls’ character that he was prepared to listen to Clements’ breakdown of how to get his career back on track.
“There was a lot of things he said he’d like me to do to improve and I was just all ears. He did mention losing weight and if it’s going to help me, it’s going to help me. My attitude is just ‘Let’s do it’,” he said.
“What’s so special working with Clem is that it’s not his way or the highway, we work on things together. It’s him being so relaxed around preparing for games. He’s helped me stay calm and level headed.”
How to watch the 2022 Championship play-off final
- Date: Sunday 29 May
- Kick-off time: 4.30pm
- Venue: Wembley Stadium
- TV channel: Coverage begins at 3.30pm on Sky Sports Football or at 4pm on Sky Sports Main Event
- Stream: You can stream it on Now. Sign up for a monthly membership for £33.99 or else buy a day pass for £11.98
Huddersfield are helmed by Marcelo Bielsa acolyte Carlos Corberan, surely a contender for manager of the year for his feat turning the club around. The Terriers are lethal on the counter attack and teak tough to break down.
Nottingham Forest – heavy favourites with the bookies – have been warned.
“Carlos has been brilliant,” Nicholls says. “He’s so level, the way he talks before games, he gives the opposition a lot of credit and it shows in how we’re set up. We’re hard to break down, we’re quite happy to let the opposition have the ball but we have a plan.”
For Nicholls, the mantra is quiet confidence. The squad are just back from a pre-play off camp in Portugal that went well. The club have a plan for penalties, he admits, but he’s staying quiet on what it involves. Sunday, he admits, cannot come soon enough.
Nicholls says his brother-in-law will be “by his side” as he walks out at Wembley for one of the most important matches of his career.
“This is the biggest game of the season, the biggest game of some of our careers,” he admits.
“We are all so focused on it and at the moment, it’s not about individual praise or anything like that. I just want to win the game and then it’ll cap off a special season.”
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