Going to midweek cup games can be a real gamble with your time. It’s very easy to come away from these games feeling like you’ve wasted your evening, particularly if you get the impression that the players cared even less than you did. The fact the attendance was around a third of a typical league game tells you that many fans are not up for the cup. Thankfully, those fans that did turn up to watch Town play Leicester on Wednesday night were treated to an excellent evening’s entertainment.
Town fought back from behind to draw the game 2-2 in normal time and then went straight to penalties and won 3-2 thanks to some heroics from Lee Nichols. While the competition might not be a priority, seeing a youthful Huddersfield Town team go toe to toe with one of the bigger Championship teams shows how much things have changed over the summer.
Control Vs Chaos
The game ended with lots of drama but it started out as a tense, tactical affair. Both teams were dedicated to playing it out from the back in possession and pressing high out of possession. This created a weird situation where both defences were having to try and pass through energetic pressure from the other team. It was an interesting battle, but it wasn’t exhilarating as long spells involved a cat and mouse game, where each team were banking on a mistake from the other.
Town deserve some credit for how they approached playing Leicester as we were the underdogs in this fixture but didn’t play that way. Leicester might have edged some of the stats in terms of possession and completed passes but there was very little to worry Lee Nicholls from them and Town were denied a decent looking penalty shout and had the best chance when Roosken fired over.
The second half was a completely different game to the first though, with far more goalmouth action and the stalemate of the first half flipped over and the attackers for each side enjoyed more joy when going forward. After no goals coming in the first half, we had four in the second and could easily have seen more.
I couldn’t honestly say I know why the game went from being cagey to open but it could be for a variety of reasons. There could have been some tactical work done by Lee Grant, as Town have come out stronger in the second half of all three games this season. Though I think it may just have been that the tiring legs meant the pressing eased off from both teams as well as the raft of substitutions made by each side improved the quality on the pitch but also unsettled the game.
It will be interesting to see if Town are developing an ability to either close down or open up football games, as this is a skill we’ve been missing for a long time. Being able to play both swashbuckling, end-to-end football and competing in tight, tactical games gives Town a lot of flexibility. Even more so if we are able to dictate the pace of a game. I couldn’t say that is what happened in this game, as Leicester probably played a part in this too, but it’ll be something to watch for in future games. If Town can switch between chaos and control, they’ll find it much easier to close out games when they’re ahead and push to get back in games when they’re behind.
You don’t win anything with kids
I’ve been quite critical of the B Team (now rebadged as the Under 21s) in the recent past for not generating enough first-team-quality players in recent times. But perhaps it was just that these kids weren’t being given a chance. Lee Grant has come in and given several of our most promising youngsters lots of time with the first team in preseason and it seems to have paid off.
Cameron Ashia’s involvement felt inevitable after he scored a lovely goal from the bench last weekend but Daniel Vost’s selection was a surprise. So far, admittedly early in the season, every gamble Lee Grant has taken has paid off for him and selecting these kids (and Jay Sway coming on from the bench) really helped in this match. Both scored but they also looked comfortable playing against a team from a higher level.
You could argue that Lee Grant has just been lucky to have inherited a few players in the academy that were ready to step up but my feeling is that these performances could only happen because these youngsters have spent a lot of time around the first team in recent weeks and therefore felt ready to join in them in a competitive game.
Alan Hansen famously said “You don’t win anything with kids” when discussing the Class of ‘92 Manchester United team and was made to eat his words, when that team went on to win the treble of Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League. Maybe a different footballing cliche works better for Town right now when considering Huddersfield Town’s youngsters, Matt Busby said on this issue: “If you’re good enough, you’re old enough.” And based on the Leicester game, these young lads are old enough.
Penalties can be fun
I’ve watched Town compete and win penalty shootouts in playoff finals against Mansfield, Sheffield United and Reading to gain promotion and all three were nerve shredding affairs. The stakes are too high to be settled in such an arbitrary fashion and it’s hard to say you’ve enjoyed something when it’s created so much stress. Penalty kicks in the first round of the League Cup have a lot less at stake and therefore are a lot more fun to watch.
There has always been a lot of criticism of the cruelty of penalties being used to separate teams in knockout games but I actually think they’re great (hardly surprising given Town’s record with penalties in playoff finals). Obviously, scoring goals in normal time is the best way to decide who’s the better team but the spectacle of penalties automatically creates a dramatic finish.
As well as helping get them through to the next round, playing a competitive penalty shootout could also have given some valuable experience to Town’s squad. While I hope we don’t need to get promoted via the playoffs and if we do, I’d hope we can win them without spot kicks but you never know.
This felt like a big win
If you asked me before this game if I cared about the result, I’d have replied that I wasn’t all that bothered but it would be good to see a good performance. The performance was really good, thankfully, but as I watched the game I became increasingly invested in the outcome. I wasn’t alone in this feeling, as there was a huge reaction in the stands when Leicester’s final penalty was saved.
I questioned before the game whether Lee Grant really wanted to win this game, as it means another midweek game to clutter up the schedule in a competition we’re extremely unlikely to win. The way we went about this game showed that a winning mentality is starting to grow in this group and the result mattered a great deal to everyone on the pitch as well as in the stands.
I even saw something on Twitter from a Leicester fan (that I now can’t find again) that thought our fans over celebrated this victory and should feel embarrassed for caring about the game. I see this as a great indication that things are on the up at Town. Rival fans continuously mocked us for doing the “Wagner Wave” celebration after every win in our promotion season but that ritual really helped galvanise the fans and players. So criticising fans for over celebrating is the kind of sour grapes that are nice to see. We’ve had very little to celebrate in recent years, so why shouldn’t we savour every moment when things start to go right?
Rival manager comments
Marti Cifuentes, Leicester’s manager, said after the game that our desire and energy meant we deserved the win. Like with the fan tweet mentioned above, this is a good sign that things are going in the right direction at Town. While Cifuentes looked like he’d shoe-horned himself into a pair of Carlos Corberan’s skinny chinos that he found in lost property, he’s also a decent manager and seemed almost envious of the way Lee Grant has got Town playing.
This isn’t the only manager to give us compliments since the start of the season. Richie Wellens from Leyton Orient compared us to last season’s record breaking Birmingham team after we beat them on the opening day. Noel Hunt said we were one of the best teams to play at Reading in recent years. While some of the motivation for these comments will have been to deflect from their own team’s shortcomings, it’s nice to get glowing reports from the managers that have come up against us. Though I expect this streak to be broken by Steve Bruce at the weekend, as he’s more inclined to make excuses than give credit where it’s due.
Lee Grant has now given himself a selection headache
One of the best things about this game is that Lee Grant now has some selection issues. While I suspect most of the players who played against Reading will get their place back in the side, a number of players from the Leicester game have done their cause no harm.
All over the pitch, there is competition for places and in some areas it’s not clear who is the first choice and who is the backup. Both Wallace and Feeney looked very solid, David Kasumu showed what he can do, Cameron Ashia has scored two incredible goals in his two appearances, Gooch and Sorensen seem to be swapping every game. And Alfie May and Joe Taylor are both competing for one striker role or one has to nudge out someone from another position to play them both together.
This is a luxury problem to have and is much nicer than trying to scratch together a team from a handful of available players. The challenge will be to keep the whole squad happy over the season even if some players don’t play as much as others. Lee Grant has already spoken repeatedly about wanting to rotate a lot this season and needing a squad but getting minutes into the fringe players to keep them involved will be important. So progressing in the League Cup has the additional benefit of keeping our backup options fit and ready to come in for league games if needed.
My one hope is that the recent injuries to Miller and Harness has reinforced the necessity for a further signing of a wide attacking player, what we used to call a winger. Particularly down the right. Otherwise this does look like a squad that could do something.
I agree that we need more options on the wings. Though the rumour mill hasn’t been churning out many stories lately, which suggests we’re not actively negotiating at the moment. That might change as we get closer to the end of the window and might also be dependent on shipping players out to keep the squad size down.
I was at the game and what I really liked, besides how well we played, was the crowd. Small turnout mostly crammed into the lower Riverside and absolutely silent most of the first half. Second half we all found our voice and it took me back to how the Kilner Bank was before the family stand was built. A real buzz and everyone wanting to really back the team. Fabulous atmosphere.
Yep. After things being fractious in the stands last season, the atmosphere is loads better this season. It helps when there’s something to cheer on the pitch, then the crowd can push the players on further.
Leicester had 7 coaches there, some double decker ones, plus loads made their own way. They were loud from the off and to see us, because of the way the team played, turning that on its head was just brilliant. The Leicester fan on Twitter saying we over celebrated really made me smile.
To be fair, I was impressed by how many Leicester fans made the trip. I hooked we take as many to Sunderland.
I can’t knock their support, they were excellent and no silliness that I saw as we left.
You make a good point about how enjoyable a penalty shoot out is, especially considering our track record of winning crucial shoot outs in the play offs. What I find truly bizarre is how bad we are at converting penalties in normal play. 10 days ago we may have got the monkey of our back by scoring a home penalty for the 1st time in 1984 days but for a split second it looked like business as usual as Dion Charles had one saved. Thankfully the keen youngster’s keenness converted the rebound.
I think it was unfortunate we were awarded the penalty at that point in the game rather than shortly after when May and Taylor were available penalty takers. The miss was poor but at least we had Vost following in. And it’s good we’ve been awarded two penalties in three games as well as having a few decent shouts turned down.