Huddersfield Town must always have Nottingham Forest envy - it’s not about the play-off final | OneFootball

Huddersfield Town may have lost the play-off final to Nottingham Forest, but they also missed out on Joe Lolley's prime in the Championship

Huddersfield Town have a lot of bad blood with Nottingham Forest due to their current situation.

Many would argue that the Terriers have been in freefall since losing the Championship play-off final to Forest in 2022.

The Reds bought their two best players, Harry Toffolo and Lewis O'Brien, that summer, didn't play them that much, and worked their way up to a European finish last season, and then, over the same time period, Huddersfield finished 18th in the Championship, were relegated the year after, and are now trying to avoid being stuck in the midtable of the third tier.

It's understandable why many Terriers fans aren't big supporters of Nottingham Forest. But for some, their inner rivalry stems from a few years earlier.

Joe Lolley's first experience of EFL football was with Huddersfield, who had played in non-league with Littleton and Kidderminster Harriers prior to signing in 2014. However, in the four years he spent there, he was unable to score more than four goals in a season.

Huddersfield were promoted in the 2016/17 campaign, but the winger didn't contribute much towards that, and didn't in the subsequent top-flight campaign, so he was sold to Nottingham Forest, where he became one of the standout widemen in the second tier.

Joe Lolley excelled at Nottingham Forest — Huddersfield Town were left wondering how

Lolley ended up being a dependable squad player during his time at the old John Smith's Stadium, mainly because his one campaign as a regular starter was rather underwhelming.

During the 2015/16 campaign, the wideman appeared in 32 Championship games, starting 25 of them, but only scored four and assisted two.

A foot injury stopped him from building on that in the following season, but even when he came back, he started just eight games and played no part in their successful play-off run en route to Premier League promotion.

After making just six top-flight appearances with the Terriers, Lolley made a January switch to the City Ground, joining up with Forest for £1 million.

Immediately, the then-25-year-old was performing to a different level than he was at Huddersfield. His first 16 Championship outings for his new club saw him contribute to the same number of goals as he did during the entire 2015/16 campaign.

Then, in his first full season at the City Ground, he won the club's player of the season award, achieving a rare 'double-double' campaign, scoring and assisting eleven times. He was involved in all the goals in the mad 5-5 draw against Aston Villa at Villa Park in November 2018, registering four assists alongside his goal that day.

That goal also won Forest's goal of the season. It was only a year and a half after the deal with Huddersfield was made, but £1 million was already looking like a real steal for the Trees.

His second full campaign saw him score another nine goals and register nine more assists, but that year will be more remembered for Forest's capitulation at the end of that campaign, as they failed to win their last six and allowed a six-goal swing on the final day to miss out on a spot in the play-offs.

Lolley picked up two of those assists in games against Huddersfield, who were forced to watch on, confused as their former winger ran the show, especially in the 3-1 Forest win at the City Ground that year.

Joe Lolley's Nottingham Forest career ended as Huddersfield Town's capitulation started

After that 2019/20 campaign, Lolley's contributions would rapidly decrease. He would only score once and assist four times in all competitions in his final two years at the City Ground.

However, before he made the move to Sydney FC, he played a supporting role in getting Forest to the Premier League, appearing in both of Forest's semi-final legs against Sheffield United (although he did miss his penalty in the shoot-out which got them to Wembley), and sitting and watching as Steve Cooper's side prevailed over his former employers in the final.

Watching Lolley lift the trophy in the play-off final must have been a real gut-punch for Huddersfield fans. Whilst the winger had cooled off slightly over the past couple of seasons, no one at the club would have expected the 33-year-old to have had the career he had following some underwhelming years in West Yorkshire.

That moment was the pinnacle for Nottingham Forest, and the start of a collapse for Huddersfield, and Lolley will be happy that he was on the red side of Wembley that day.