Huddersfield Town midfielder Duane Holmes has revealed the Terriers believe they belong in the top six, speaking to Yorkshire Live ahead of tonight's home tie against Birmingham City.

The West Yorkshire outfit have begun their season in an impressive fashion after finishing in a lowly 20th last term, playing well despite the departures of the likes of Isaac Mbenza and Juninho Bacuna who have both left the club in the last few months.

Managing to win three of their six games this season by a one-goal margin, turning draws into victories has been no problem for Carlos Corberan's men and have gone unbeaten in their last three games heading into tonight's clash at the John Smith's Stadium.

They come up against a Birmingham side that have failed to win any of their last six matches, scoring just once during this spell and will be desperate to respond after a narrow defeat against local rivals West Bromwich Albion.

This match is poised to be the ultimate banana skin for the Terriers then - and will need to come out on top tonight if they want to give themselves the best chance of staying in the play-off zone with league leaders AFC Bournemouth their next opponents after tonight's game.

One man who believes they belong there through their commitment to the cause is 26-year-old Holmes, who spoke yesterday afternoon to Yorkshire Live when Huddersfield were in sixth place, being knocked down to seventh after yesterday's game but can get back into the play-offs with their game in hand tonight.

He said: "It's (their position) the consequence of what we do on the training ground day in, day out, and all our hard work.

"It's not a coincidence that we're there. It's through sheer hard work and being a good team.

"We firmly believe we are where we belong, and we're going to do everything we can to stay right up there."

The Verdict:

Huddersfield have earned that position by no other means than through merit, so Holmes has every right to say they deserve to be in and around the promotion mix at this moment in time.

Their response from last season, with Lewis O'Brien's contract renewal obviously being a big boost amid previous interest from Leeds United, has been extremely impressive because it looked as though they were heading one way before the start of this campaign and were tipped to go down by many.

However, whether they can maintain their current run of form until the end of the season remains to be seen, so it will be fascinating to see where they finish up.

Either way, the mood seems to be a lot happier off the pitch at the John Smith's Stadium and that can only have a good impact on it for the remainder of the 2021/22 season, with Sorba Thomas emerging as one of the surprise packages of the EFL this term.

Another factor in their favour tonight is the fact their home form has been reasonably impressive, winning four of their opening six games in West Yorkshire this season and after going unbeaten in their last three (both home and away), they will be full of confidence and ready to make it four.