I’ve been putting off writing this article because I’ve not wanted to dwell on Sunday’s game. Despite thinking before the game that I wasn’t too bothered about the outcome, defeat stung and the manner of the defeat even more so.
Huddersfield Town lost the game 1-0 to a Levi Colwilll own goal but the match will be remembered for two penalty decisions that weren’t given to Town in the second half of the game despite VAR being available.
VAR, bad decisions and conspiracy theories
From my position in the stands I could see the contact when Toffolo went over and was surprised when Moss didn’t give the penalty. Then when the game paused for the review, I was certain we’d be given the penalty and was outraged that the video referee didn’t spot the contact between Colback and Toffolo.
The Lewis O’Brien foul in the box was less blatant but still would be given as a penalty more often than it wouldn’t. The fact that VAR didn’t even take a second look at it was ridiculous.
I think it’s generally a good idea to not get too wound up about refereeing decisions but in this case it’s hard to stay calm. There’s no chance for these mistakes to even out over the course of the season, no questioning that the outcome of the game couldn’t have been different if the penalty had been given. It’s hard to accept.
As gutted as I am about these non-penalties, I don’t think it’s part of some wider conspiracy to keep Town out of the Premier League. Just like it wasn’t John Moss’s secret pro-Leeds agenda that led to his mistake. I think the real issue was that he’s a poor ref, in poor physical condition, and he has made a host of mistakes already this season. Giving him this match to officiate was a mistake and rather than being because of some dark scheme, I suspect it was a senntimental choice to let him bow out in a high-profile match.
As much as I was cursing John Moss at the time, I also think it’s pretty poor that his shop in Leeds has been the target of Huddersfield Town fans looking to settle the score. I don’t think ruining his business’ reputation with fake reviews is fair even if some of them are pretty funny.
Town weren’t good enough on the day
The penalty decisions will be what we remember this game for but I actually think Forest were the better side on the day. Not by a great deal but enough to justify their victory. In the first half in particular, they dominated possession and ground Town down.
Once Forest had their goal they went into their shell and allowed us to have the ball but looked mostly comfortable with the obvious exception of those occasions when they fouled our players in the box. We’ve struggled all season to unlock teams that set up to defend and the fact we didn’t register a shot on target all game shows that we didn’t do enough to break them down.
I’m not too despondent that Town struggled, they were up against one of the best teams in the Championship and the margin between defeat and victory was very slim (and could have been very different with a different referee). While we weren’t quite at our best, we managed to restrict Forest to few decent chances too and stopped them from getting into their stride.
Selection and tactics not quite right
I think the starting lineup for this game was wrong and judging by Carlos’ first substitution, he realised this too. Starting Sarr in the middle of the back three, pushing Hogg into midfield and dropping Russell made Town more solid at the back but it meant we didn’t have anyone who could control possession in the middle of the park when we got the ball.
We set up initially to play on the counter but this strategy didn’t work because we weren’t getting quality balls forward to release the attackers when Forest’s attacks broke down. Instead we lumped the ball aimlessly upfield and they came straight back at us. Russell is the player that can take the ball in deep areas and move it quickly up field into the run of an advancing forward. Bringing him on in the second half added this to our game.
I don’t think it was wrong to set up to counter attack in this game. Thinking back to Town’s away win at Fulham earlier in the season, we put in an almost perfect counter-attacking performance in that game and if we’d played as well against Forest as we did in that game we’d be in the Premier League now. In that game, we sat deep and allowed Fulham plenty of the ball but we aggressively defended our box and when we did get the ball back we picked off Fulham and created decent chances by getting in behind them.
So, actually, perhaps it was more the execution than the tactics that were wrong. If a few more players had been on top of their game it might have been another story. But that’s always the case in any defeat.
Wembley atmosphere
While there wasn’t a great deal to shout about on the pitch, I thought that the energy in the Town side of Wembley was unusually subdued. Even before kickoff, on the concourse it was very civilised and low-key in the section I was in. In fact, it was so quiet that it was easy to hear the racket Forest fans were making on the other side of the barrier.
Maybe it was because Town have been in plenty of playoff finals before, because some fans didn’t really fancy promotion to the Premier League or the high proportion of occasional fans out for the day trip. Whatever the reason, both before and during the game, the atmosphere never really got going.
It has to be said that Forest’s fans were definitely in better voice and I was completely sick of their “Yooouuuu Reddddds!” chant before the game had even started. They might not have been the most gracious victors but they deserve their success after years and years of underachievement.
Something to build from
Losing playoff finalists can go one of two ways. Sometimes falling at the final hurdle can provide an incentive to go one step further the next season and other times it can be the high water mark before a decline. Town over-achieved to get to third in the league this season but have given themselves a platform from which they can build upon for next season.
Promotion seemed preposterous for much of the last season but we came within a couple of dodgy penalty decisions of getting ourselves back to the Premier League. With some smart business in the summer and further steady improvement under Corberan, it’s possible that we could be genuine contenders next season.
People always look at a match as being 90 minutes, or a game of 2 halves. Well obviously it is but that is only a generalisation. A game is actually a collection of moments, sometimes very brief moments, sometimes few and far between. It’s those moments that decide the outcome. There are many types of moments, for instance a goal, a penalty, a red card, a referee decision, an injury. Any one of these can change a game because it changes the how a team play and the psychology of how players think and go about their business. Between moments there is often a load of unmemorable dross being played. It’s only the moments which are remembered and change the game. For instance Town were easily beating WBA by two goals when the referee gave a penalty against Thomas which was totally wrong. The goal from this and the next few minutes totally messed up Town players heads and they conceded again within a few minutes and later almost lost it completely. So against Forest the defining moments were the 2 penalties which just about everyone in the land except the referee and VAR said should have been given. Any one of these being converted would have levelled the match and scoring from both could have won it. Therefore these moments totally changed the how the players attitudes were for the rest of the game. Forests attitude was one of confidence as they were winning and had got away with something. Conversely, Towns mentality was more downbeat, feeling everything was against them and they were chasing the game. Football isn’t basketball and is a very low scoring game so the moments, outlined above, matter a lot with a whole match (and maybe millions of pounds!), often revolving on a split second incorrect refereeing decision as it did in this case.
You were spot on with the subdued nature of the Town fans but virtually everyone I spoke had the same outlook on the game. Namely, they wanted to win, the money would have been nice but they didn’t want to play in the Premier League. This led to an extremely relaxed and chilled out status. We’re not novices at Play Off Finals and know what to expect, unlike Forest, who’s fans were giddy and excitable to be playing at Wembley. Less said about the Ref the better and I’m not going to dwell on it.
Let’s look at next season now, I hope everybody has had a good time over the last few months, i certainly have .We have the weekend off to have time out, not to go to the JS and think how much the score will be to the opposition, and this time we can have no complaints.No one would argue particularly with the retained list, town fans have a rest , let’s get another guy up front and go from there. Still think we need a inquest into ticketing for season card holders at Wembley .
What was wrong with the ticketing for season ticket holders? My mate is a season ticket holder and ordered 5 tickets, but bought for other season ticket holders (mine was one of them).there The tickets then went on general sale and still did not sell out, so ho wanted one. I think the inquest needs to be the way casuals could only get 2 tickets.
It’s fine Yorky if you want to be seated in the sky, but what choice did you have after Wednesday till open sale on the Monday ? Not a lot, and the later the week went on the better the seats available.
Before the game I said I had confidence in Town coach CC to select the best team for the day sadly it didn’t turn out that way I was surprised to see he dropped Russel to the bench and I would have liked to see Holmes from the start . He odiously release this by bringing them on later in the game . The two calls for a penalty VAR saying no foul was a ridiculous decision If that’s the best that VAR can do then the FA shouldn’t bother with it at all . I am still hurting not because Town lost but the way they lost
Forest can count themselves lucky that the officials for this game fell short of a what we expected for such a important match and it went all their way
CC
Cheers TS.
Although I wasn’t happy with Carlos dropping Russell, I thought the tactic (other than some of Sarr’s passing!!!) was working as Hogg and LOB were able to engage higher up the pitch and still have a back three as a safety net. Forest were throwing their arms up and running out of steam and ideas when they fluked their goal. There’s been a lot of talk on national media this week with experts who’ve never said anything positive about our club singing Carlos’ praises and saying he out-smarted Cooper. But, as Scrooge says, the moments are what decide games and they didn’t go our way.
Our fans were subdued although I guarantee that getting a penalty would have been the spark we all needed.
As a Villa mate said, they lost at Wembley and used it to kick on. Carlos will (assuming he stays) use that sense of injustice felt by everyone at Town to fire us into next season. I just hope Dean will keep LOB and inject our attack with a bit more pace.
We go again.
As an ‘occasional’ (Leeds Road 1955, Wembley 1917) , London-based ‘fan’, sorry to have been too quiet . Jogging a few miles to the stadium around the North West London ‘Capital Ring’ to meet daughter – found it unexpectedly exciting, as the blue and white striped hordes came into view – daughter determined to enjoy it despite being a life time Londoner.
True, Forest had the bigger and noisier crowd but as on the pitch, thought there wasn’t too much in it. Had low expectations as always – in my network they are (affectionally) ‘the Dudds’.
Never having seen this team before – although much more limited in on ball skills than Forest – could see there was method and organisation there , despite infuriating misplaced passes out of defence. Daughter cheered up as they finally managed a semblance of attacks approaching half time – tried to caution her – and of course the inevitably Forest goal just before HT.
Much better possession in second half – but woeful lack of ideas to break them down as the half wore on. Grotesque refereeing – bowing to the pressure of the whole country wanting Forest in the PM?
Sad to look back on what might have been, but such a wonderfully overachieving season to have ended under the Wembley arch.
I thought there was a big difference in the crowd mood between the second Luton game and this one: then everybody seemed nervous and could hardly sing because they were shaking like leaves. At Wembley people were just relaxed and happy to be there, so never really got into top gear for that reason. But it didn’t help that Forest totally dominated the game from about min 10 to min 40 – and when Town finally started to get back into it, the goal of course came.
Town were the slightly better team in the second half, but overall Forest deserved the win, even though they certainly weren’t at their best either (but not many team are in a playoff final; you don’t go there expecting to see tantalising football).
Still the way Town lost definitely stings: I don’t think blaming referee decisions is a very useful sport for many reasons (and in particular not when you don’t manage a single shot on target the other 88 minutes either!), but it was strange to appoint a guy who had basically already retired to be in charge of such a high-profile game. And I simply can’t understand why VAR didn’t help Moss out to get the decisions right. From where I sat, both situations looked like penalties, but I assumed the referee and VAR had lot better views than me. Seeing the replays after match, it’s surprising that VAR didn’t step in on either occasion.
_But_ that definitely doesn’t excuse attacking the referee or his business after the game. It’s history now, so let’s leave it at that. We go again next year. UTT!
Not the most exciting of games, Forest was largely contained but Town created and threatened very little on the day, so not at all disappointed at the outcome leaving at least one more season in the Championship, watching the team further develop with continued imaginative recruitment. Those were my thoughts immediately after the game, but later having watched a certain pair of incidents far too many times I have become more and more angry about the incompetence displayed by all the match officials, plenty of re-training required here although for one it’s far too late.
On another day with another referee we might have been given two penalties, would VAR have changed those decisions? Possibly not? Highlighting the fact that perfection will never be achieved with on/off field judgements. If only Toffolo had carried on running instead of leaping to avoid the tackle, then a penalty certainly, unfortunately his leap was a perfectly natural reaction to gain position and beat the player. Toffolo was then booked for trying to avoid contact with the tackling player – ludicrous. The strangest non-act was no review for the “foul” on O’Brien; would this have been looked at had Forest immediately charged up the other end and scored?
Growl.
You can’t let a little thing like 2 penalties get in the way of a predetermined result….!
Fatty, who refereed the final, should hang his head in shame. Have I heard correctly, this same man is going to be in charge of referees now he has retired? His legacy from this Wembley final will never be forgotten, but all HTFC fans. I don’t believe in the play-offs. Unless we can start having them for relegation!!
No. The Ref was dodgy too by that I mean FULLY CORRUPT. He was from Leeds too. There’s no excuse for him not going over to check over VAR himself pitch side after 2nd penalty claim v O’Brien
First I thought Carlos picked the wrong starting eleven, he should have started with Russell and Holmes, the referee looked as if he was ready for retirement, and why waste millions on VAR if you are going to ignore it, maybe the people saying things about a Leeds ref. and the football establishment wanting Forest in the PL are right, I still believe Town are a better side than NF ,all we ask for is a fair rub of the green and Town certainly did not get that , I believe had Town scored from one of the penaltys, we would have gone on to win the game, I wish Forest all the luck in the world in the PL , cos unless they spend all the £170m, boy they are they going to need it, as for Town, we regroup and go again in August as always, I for one will not miss the the PL because that is a stich up for promoted teams. UTT.