Marcus Stewart sends 'heroes' message to Huddersfield Town players ahead of play-off final

Former Huddersfield Town striker Marcus Stewart still keeps up to date with what is going on at the club where he was such a hero over his four-year spell from 1996 to 2000 – and he will be cheering on Carlos Corberan’s team in their Championship play-off final against Nottingham Forest on Sunday.

Asked what he sees in the current Terriers side, Stewart told “I’ve watched a few [Town] games. I’ve been up a couple of times this season and watched the second leg against Luton, which was very tight.

“They’re very organised. I think to be organised you have to have a really good team spirit and trust your teammate and the person beside you, so I think they do. I think the players trust each other, trust the staff and trust the manager in terms of how they play.

“They’ve had loads of clean sheets this year – like Forest have as well – so to be able to do that and have the desire as a team to defend like they do takes some trust, because everyone wants to attack and nobody really wants to defend, but in this team I see a lot of players willing to sacrifice runs forward and are happy to defend. We know they’re very good at set plays as well and have one or two match-winners”

Forest are being tipped as favourites for this game, but Stewart himself finds it difficult to separate the sides in his estimations – though of course his loyalties will be firmly on the blue and white side of the equation.

“I was just chatting to David Johnson, whose son Brennan is playing for Forest, and he was saying Forest have maybe got one or two more match-winners than Huddersfield,” he says. “But that’s the only difference I’d say. They’re very similar formations and Huddersfield have obviously got the set pieces they can exploit like they have