Going down with a whimper – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s final day defeat to Ipswich

Delusional Town fans will have had their hopes of a dramatic final-day 15-0 Town victory dashed yesterday, when Ipswich swept Town aside in a 2-0 victory that could easily have been more if they really set their minds to it. Town’s relegation to League One next season is now officially confirmed and this unpleasant season can finally be put to bed. 

The last game of the season was like many of the other games where we played top teams in the division, Town had no answers against vastly superior opposition and despite trying their best, came up significantly short.

Here are my thoughts on the last game of Town’s season.

Going down with a whimper

Town’s defeat in this game wasn’t really a surprise but it was a bit galling to see how one sided it was. In August one team will be a Premier League side and the other League One and the gulf in class was already blindingly obvious. Ipswich played with fluency and vigour while Town lumped the ball forward into empty space for the striker to chase. If we had a gameplan, other than damage limitation, it wasn’t coming through to me.

Obviously, Ipswich came into this game on the brink of promotion and Town with relegation already confirmed, so the moods in each camp were polar opposites but there was an opportunity to exploit the nervousness in the Ipswich ranks. If Town had been able to frustrate their opponents and unsettle them it could have made for less of a party atmosphere and added some tension. 

As it happened, we seemed to lose every battle, right across the pitch and were played off the park. In many ways, it was the fitting way to bow out of the Championship, as it showed we are not good enough for this level. While the other teams at the bottom end of the Championship all seemed to get results against the odds, we rolled over and let Ipswich have their way with us. 

Rudoni’s subbing was harsh but correct  

One of the main talking points from this game was the withdrawal of Jack Rudoni shortly after Ipswich’s opening goal. He was having a relatively poor game prior to the incident that led to Ipswich’s goal, but then gave away possession in the immediate build up to the goal. But I think the real reason he was subbed was because of his reaction to losing possession. Rather than realising he’d badly messed up by squandering possession in a dangerous area and hustling to regain the ball, he did a shuffling, half attempt to make a tackle, which was a factor in them being able to score. Breitenreiter has repeatedly aired his frustration at players not tracking back to make tackles, so this was surely the reason for him getting hooked before the break. 

While I’m sure Rudoni will feel humiliated to have been treated this way by his manager, I got the feeling he was a bit too quick to forgive himself for his initial error on the pitch, so this may have been a learning opportunity for him. Despite him having played a great number of games, he’s still a relatively young man and still has room to improve and learn. I hope he now knows that the best way to respond to getting something wrong on the pitch is to bust a gut to put it right, both in the immediate aftermath of the incident in question but over the course of the whole match in general too. 

I could understand criticism of Breitenreiter for his decision to sub Rudoni but I think there was a logic to taking action immediately. Thinking back to the glut of goals we conceded against both Coventry and Preston North End recently, they came in quick succession and mostly through midfielders being weak defensively. So giving Rudoni ten minutes to redeem himself could have led to another two or three goals going in, if those prior games are anything to go by. Also, Breitenreiter has tried to show a tougher side this last week, making this substitution shows that he is not standing for the same kind of nonesense that he has been putting up with in the past few months. In my opinion, it’s far too little, far too late, but it’s the right thing to do nonetheless.  

Was the selection as revealing as it seemed?

The absence of Sorba Thomas, Jaheim Headley and Delano Burgzorg from the traveling group makes it pretty obvious that they are not in the manager’s good books, as none were listed as injured and the subs’ bench was made up of two keepers and several academy kids. Then again, it’s likely that the group of bad characters that Breitenreiter accused of not caring about the club must have included some of the players either starting the game or on the bench, as he mentioned that this group was too big and just two or three would have been manageable. I’m not going to play any guessing games here, but it’s hard not to start wondering who this gang of players are that have got under the manager’s skin so much. 

One player that received a glowing reference in the post match press conference and a warm reception as he was subbed off, was Tom Edwards. In fairness, he deserved it for a much improved performance against Ipswich. The bar was admittedly pretty low based on his prior Town showings but this was a decent run out for the Stoke loanee. On the right of a back three, he seemed a lot more comfortable as he didn’t have as much running to do and despite some loose passing, his comfort on the ball and ambition with his passing was a welcome alternative to Matty Pearson’s tendency to get his head down and hoof it down field. This mediocre showing wasn’t enough to change my overall opinion of Edwards, but it’s only fair to give him credit for doing OK when I’ve slated him when he’s been rubbish. 

Elsewhere on the pitch, I think there were some selections that were made out of necessity rather than choice, neither Ward or Healey seemed fit enough to play the full game or anywhere near it. So neither had any real impact on the game other than brief flashes. If both are fit for preseason and are fully firing by the start of next season it’s possible they could be different beasts. I’m not so sure about Radulovic, as I think the gamble on his goal-scoring prowess translating from the Finnish leagues to our league has not paid off. Maybe he’ll love League One but so far he looks a bit lost, maybe he’ll come good but so far it’s looking a bit iffy.  

Everywhere else, it seemed like everyone was putting in a flat, let’s-get-this–out-of-the-way sort of performance. Some were marginally better than others, but mostly it was 5s and 6s out of 10s with players wanting to get back on the coach as quickly as possible so they can start thinking about their summer holidays (and for many their exits from Huddersfield Town).

Ipswich deserve their moment of celebration 

It was bitter sweet to watch Ipswich enjoy their promotion at the final whistle. It’s hard not to be happy for a team that plays football the right way and so obviously deserves their back-to-back promotions but it was also a reminder of our own experience of promotion to the Premier League that feels both not that long ago and, equally, about a million years ago at the same time. The experience of watching this current version of Huddersfield Town is a world apart from the unity we had and the excitement we experienced in the David Wagner era of Huddersfield Town. Ipswich have a similar sort of energy to that David Wagner version of Huddersfield Town.

So it was sort of lovely to see the joy in the Ipswich fans’ faces as they realised their dream of making it back to the Premier League. While they may quickly tire of life in the top flight if things don’t go their way, they will at least bring a bit of novelty to the top flight and from what we saw in this game they can play a bit too, so won’t be complete whipping boys. 

There is some consolation for Town in Ipswich’s promotion because they are an example of a team that can come up from League One and get promoted to the Premier League in their first season back in the Championship. So Town could repeat the same feat in two season’s time if they play their cards right. It would be an almost unimaginable sequence of good decisions and luck to get to that point, but Ipswich have at least shown that such a thing is possible and we can dream – for now at least.

This performance wasn’t an advert Breitenreiter staying on

We’re going to find out in the next few days whether Andre Breitrenreiter wants to stay on as Town boss or not. It sounds like there will be showdown talks next week involving him, Kevin Nagle and the executives to decide if it’s worth him staying. My impression is that the dynamic of these talks will be the club trying to convince him to stay, not him trying to plead for his job. Given he’s only won two games so far and has most likely written millions of pounds of value off many of our players transfer fees with his remarks to the press (the ones we most want to sell too) then I would have thought it might have been the other way around, but it seems from Kevin Nagle’s tweet yesterday and Breitenreiter’s comments after the game, he is the one that hasn’t decided if he’s staying or not.

I said earlier this week that I was neutral about whether Breitrenreiter stays or goes. This game against Ipswich didn’t do much to convince me that I want him to carry on. I admire the principled stance he took on his selection and the subbing off of Rudoni but the actual game plan was poor and didn’t seem to do anything but allow a talented team to play right through us and pull us to bits. Admittedly we kept the scoreline respectable but we were never really in the game either.

Regardless, the future of Breitenreiter will be decided in the next week or so and he has stated after the game that he’s not so keen at dropping down to the third tier. This reluctance, on its own, concerns me, as if we have to beg him to drop to that level, he’ll surely leave as soon as a better offer comes along. But I suppose he has a record of succeeding either in the top tier or top end of the second tier of various European leagues, so in theory a manager of his pedigree could be a real asset in League One. 

Now the hard work starts

This is likely to be a busier postseason than usual for Town. Though that always seems to be the case for one reason or another. We’ve got Kevin Nagle’s promised video diary which will address fan’s questions coming up some time soon, the season cards go on sale on Wednesday next week, Andre Breitenreiter’s future is likely to be confirmed one way or another soon too, the retained list should come soon and the playoffs will finalise the last few teams that we’ll be playing alongside in League One next season. So despite the season being over, there’s still plenty of stuff going on.

Then there will most likely be a lull for much of May and June while the focus will switch to international football for the Euros. Then it will be back for preseason in July when the transfer market will start to warm up and all the fun will start again. Who knows what Town will look like by then. If things are as bad as Andre Breitenreiter says they are, there needs to be a lot of sorting out behind the scenes to have a harmonious camp in place for that preseason at the beginning of July.