Martin Drury Named Huddersfield Town Head Coach After Six-Month Audit
martin drury has been named Huddersfield Town’s new head coach after a six-month spell around the first team and a caretaker run that ended with two wins in seven matches. The club has chosen him after Liam Manning did not return to his role, giving Huddersfield a permanent appointment after a season that finished ninth in League One.
Huddersfield Town Choose Drury
Drury, 40, stepped in at the end of the campaign after Manning was granted compassionate leave, and Huddersfield moved him from caretaker to the main job after a full process over the past three weeks. Chris Markham said the club had “had the benefit of seeing Martin’s work for the last six months” and added: “It was immediately clear why he has a reputation across football as an elite coach, but his leadership over the final seven games in difficult circumstances was impressive too.”
Markham also said: “Even with this in mind, we quickly decided that we had to run a full process to identify our next head coach.” Drury emerged from interviews alongside other candidates with different backgrounds and profiles, and the decision was unanimous.
Jon Stead Joins The Staff
Drury will be assisted by former Town striker Jon Stead, giving Huddersfield a coaching team that already worked together in the closing stage of the season. Drury and Stead took over in March until the end of the campaign, which gave the club a clear look at how the pair operated under pressure.
That stretch matters because Huddersfield are not starting from scratch. They already know the structure Drury used, how he handled the final seven games, and how the staff responded when the season tightened. The new head coach is also a familiar figure in the building after joining Huddersfield in January as part of Manning’s staff.
Drury’s Route To Huddersfield
The appointment adds another change to a club that has now had three different head coaches in just under a year, after Lee Grant and Manning. Drury’s background includes coaching spells at Bradford City, Manchester United, West Bromwich Albion, Valencia and Brentford, and he started his coaching career with non-league Bradford Park Avenue.
For Huddersfield, the practical shift is clear: the caretaker period is over, the staff has a permanent leader, and the club can build around a coach it has already evaluated in difficult circumstances. For Drury, the job now moves from proving he can steady the side to being responsible for the full direction of it.
