news-engine

Huddersfield Town captain Ryan Ledson on Martin Drury's key change since taking over at League One club A BIT of plain-speaking from a Yorkshireman has gone down rather well among Huddersfield Town's players this summer. That's the message from Terriers captain Ryan Ledson regarding new full-time head coach Martin Drury. On Saturday, the 40-year-old takes charge of his hometown club in a competitive fixture at the Accu Stadium for the first time since being handed the permanent reins back in late May - when AFC Wimbledon are the visitors for Town's 2026-27 League One curtain-raiser. Ironically, the Dons were actually the opponents for Town's final league game of the previous campaign, a 4-0 away win in the capital on May 2. That big victory arrived on the back of some stinging and very public criticism which Drury aimed at the club's players following the previous weekend's events, when the Terriers crashed 4-1 at home in their last home appointment of 2025-26. It suggested that Drury, then in interim charge alongside Jon Stead, was a tough cookie as he spoke about the importance of standards and accountability after labelling the season as a 'failure'. He also referenced his abhorrence of any excuse culture and suggested that those who chose to indulge in it needed to leave the club. Ledson, for one, was an advocate of Drury's approach then and everything he has witnessed since the Huddersfield-born head coach became the full-time boss has subsequently reconfirmed it. "He's really honest, intense and he'll say it how it is," Ledson said. "For a player, I think that's definitely the best. You know what he wants from you, so then you go out and you deliver it. "I've been really impressed with the way he's come back and his staff that we've got in. There's a bit of experience alongside to help him with the staff and it looks good. "You know where you stand. I was all for him getting the job towards the end of the season. I thought we performed really well under them. "It felt a lot different, so I was definitely one of his biggest fans for him to get the job, and I'm glad he was." Three of Ledson's seven goals scored last term arrived in Drury and Jon Stead's seven-game interim spell at the helm in the final six weeks of 25-26. The former Preston North End man struck in successive games, from Easter Monday onwards, against Leyton Orient, Wycombe Wanderers and Cardiff City, with the input of Drury and Stead bringing out the best of him in that regard. It showed the goalscoring potential of Ledson in the process, with players capable of getting around the double-figure mark in a campaign being worth their weight in gold in League One circles. Ledson's feats in 2026 would suggest he has the capacity to be in that vicinity. He continued: "That's what I want. If you can add goals to your game, it's obviously really good, isn't it? "I think I had a good vein of form towards the end of last year (season), and fingers crossed I can continue. Any way I can chip in with goals, assists or, whatever to help the team, that's always what I'm looking to do."