As you might have guessed by now, I support Huddersfield Town AFC, as does Patrick (Star Trek) Stewart and David (The Damned United) Peace. Michael Hardcastle MBE, one of the earliest children’s authors to write football stories, is also a Town fan.

To be honest - and this is a daring revelation - it would have been more natural for me to follow our arch enemies, Leeds United. When I was little I lived near Leeds and everyone knew the names of all the players. Paul Lorimer was my favourite but I can remember my grandma being delighted when the Leeds centre-half, Jackie Charlton, once bought fish and chips from her fish shop in Garforth.  However, my family never attended matches so I never experienced a live match until many years later. Maybe if I had been taken to Elland Road as a child I’d be a die-hard United fan today but it was not to be. We moved from Leeds when I was 11 and the connection was broken. I do still have a soft spot for them, said she bravely.

As a teenager I was more interested in music than football (from Lindisfarne to David Bowie). I remember when I went to college one of the girls was a Manchester United fan and everyone thought she was odd! Girls just didn’t go to matches then, or so I presumed.

It wasn’t until I met my future husband that I began going to games. A Huddersfield Town supporter all his life, if I wanted to see Pete on Saturdays, it would have to be at Leeds Road. And so, almost 30 years ago, it began.

Here’s a list of teams some other children’s writers support:

Neil Arksey - Arsenal

Allan Ahlberg - West Bromwich Albion

Adele Geras - Manchester United

Paul Cookson (poet in residence at the National Football Museum) - Everton

James Riordan - Portsmouth

Dennis Hamley - Portsmouth

Alan Gibbons -Manchester United

Bali Rai - Liverpool

Chris D’Lacey - Leicester City

Korky Paul - Liverpool

Tom Palmer - Leeds United

Echo Freer - Leeds United

Malcolm Rose - Coventry City

Sandra Glover - Manchester United

Anne Cassidy - West Ham

Alan MacDonald - Watford

Mal Peet - Norwich City

Sue Mongredien - Aston Villa

Steve Smallman - Aston Villa

Andy Seed - Manchester United

Narinder Dhami - Wolverhampton Wanderers

Keren David - Manchester United

Cindy Jeffreries - Cheltenham Town

Damian Harvey - Blackpool Town

Malachy Doyle - Tottenham Hotspur

Mary Hooper - Brentford Town

Jennie Walters - Tottenham Hotspur

Fiona Dunbar - Arsenal

Seb Goffe - Manchester United and Cheltenham Town

Kathryn Langrish - Hereford United

I’ve been waiting for this film to come out for ages. When I first read the book (half  the front cover of which is shown on the left. I need to work out why I can  only upload  50% of my portrait shots) I was blown away by it. I’d never read such a gripping, original account of the football world. Better still, despite being about Brian Clough’s time at  Leeds United and Derby County, it was written by a Huddersfield Town supporter.  Three cheers for David Peace. Get in there,  clever lad!

The film’s had a mixed reception. Half the Leeds players have been upset by it and Brian Clough’s family haVE boycotted it and I guess if you detest football you’re not going to get much out of it either but I thought it was spot-on.  First of all, Timothy Spall’s one of the cast. Any film starring Timothy Spall is bound to be watchable as he is simply the best British actor going.  End of.  Michael Sheen, playing Clough, is amazing at getting under the skin of whichever character he takes on (Kenneth Williams, Tony Blair etc) but that makes me feel a bit queazy for some reason. He was Clough to a ‘t’ but I felt he overdid the sneering a little. Now Spall; what a guy.  He played Peter Taylor, Clough’s assistant and was responsibly for some of the most poignant moments in the film. The Damned United is as much about the deep bond that existed between the maverick coach and his loyal sidekick as it is football and Spall portrayed this brilliantly. In non-football terms, Clough is Frodo and Taylor is Samwise.  Discuss.

The 1970s, when the film was set, is seen by some as a golden era of football but Damned United gives a stark reminder of how grim things were. The shabby changing rooms, the dire, almost grass-free swamps of pitches, the generally squalid conditions in some of the lower league clubs - all brought home how much better things are now. As for the football itself. Ouch!  The film is at its most riveting when it uses original footage of some of the games, especially the shots homing in on the dirty tackles for which Leeds were infamous. It’s a wonder they didn’t cripple half the opposition for life.

Football is notoriously difficult to put into a film setting (When Saturday Comes springs to mind) as football played by actors is usually unconvincing but The Damned United has to be up there as one of the best.

Well done to Huddersfield Town yesterday for their three points against Hereford, too.  All in all I had a good Saturday!