Huddersfield Town came from behind twice to take Leicester to penalties on Wednesday night in the first round for the League Cup. The game was a tense tactical battle in the first half before opening up into a genuinely exciting and well matched game. Despite making a raft of changes to the team, Lee Grant managed to get another good performance to maintain his 100% win rate with the Terriers for a third game.
Or can you call it a 100% record if we won the game on penalties? Technically the game was a 2-2 draw at full time, so maybe he’s won two and drawn one. It doesn’t really matter, as Town won the penalty shootout 3-2 with a kick to spare and created a huge buzz in the stadium.
Here’s what I made of each player’s performance…
Lee Nicholls – 7 out of 10
Looked uncomfortable with playing out from the back and nearly got caught in possession on multiple occasions. In his defence, he often had very few viable options to pass to and ultimately didn’t make any horrendous errors. Went on to produce the penalty saves we needed to get through to the next round. None of his saves were spectacular but he picked the right direction a good number of times and stopped the ball going in.
Lynden Gooch – 6 out for 10
Was schooled by a 16 year-old in the early stages, when Jeremy Monga produced some excellent trickery to repeatedly get the better of Gooch. The tide turned in this fascinating battle as the game went on and Gooch seemed to get the measure of the youngster, even if that required going through the back of him at one point.
Josh Feeney – 7 out of 10
Looked confident on the ball and stood up to a lot of pressure when he was in possession. His passing was impressive and helped to start off a few attacks. I’m pretty sure he was going to be the fifth penalty taker, so was no doubt relieved to see Town win without needing to take all five.
Murray Wallace – 7 out of 10
A very impressive return to competitive action at Huddersfield Town. In a very young team, he added a bit of maturity and calm to proceedings. He doesn’t move all that freely but is intelligent with his positioning to avoid getting caught in a foot race with faster opposing players. His passing was good too, including picking out Ashia in space to get one of those undeserved assists, where the passer doesn’t contribute much to the goal scored.
Sean Roughan – 7 out of 10
I keep thinking he looks worn out but I think he’s just got one of those faces, as he put in a real shift despite looking goosed after twenty minutes. Seems to have shrugged off his injury and looked very solid as well as occasionally getting forward. Was a little slow to join attacks once or twice but at other times he bust a gut to overlap.
David Kasumu – 7 out of 10
A mature and disciplined performance in a game that didn’t really suit his natural style. Did make some useful runs from deep to carry the ball up the field and protected the defence well.
Daniel Vost – 7 out for 10
A cautious, safety-first sort of performance which is understandable given it was his competitive debut. Barring an overhit backpass that didn’t lead to anything dangerous, he didn’t do much wrong and covered a lot of ground. I think he’s got more to show if he gets a bit more comfortable in the first team but still was good enough here. I’ve bumped him up to a seven because he did well to follow in Charles’ penalty and head over their stranded keeper.
Cameron Ashia – 9 out of 10
Was our most effective and tireless presser of the ball and repeatedly forced errors from Leicester’s defence. Had to feed off scraps at times but did well when he got on the ball. Scored a truly spectacular goal that came out of nothing much. His run and curling shot perhaps benefited from some generous defending but nobody expected him to curl it into the top corner from that range. His celebration was excellent too, seemingly being made of about six different poses that he rotated through like a glitching FIFA character stuck in celebration mode. A joy to watch.
Ben Wiles – 6 out for 10
Not bad but not a stand out player either. With the opening stages of the game seeing us struggle to attack and then the more open bits of the game suiting the faster wide players, he wasn’t hugely involved.
Ruben Roosken – 8 out of 10
Won one penalty and was unlucky/went down too easily with another similar situation. While some doubt his ability as a winger, nobody can deny that he’s got pace and runs directly at defenders which is currently doing well for him. Nearly scored a wonder strike with a long range shot that went over but could have burst the net if it went in due to the power he generated.
Dion Charles – 5 out of 10
Town fans are very familiar with what out-of-form strikers look like and Dion Charles ticked all the boxes. He squandered a very good opportunity to score himself by laying it off to the Ashia in a worse position that he was in. The penalty miss wasn’t a surprise as his body language building up to taking it looked troubling. His work rate and desire aren’t an issue but it looks like his failure to score yet for Town has turned from a monkey on his back to an elephant.
Substitutes
Leo Castledine – 7 out of 10 – Interesting to see him play the number 10 role a bit differently to Ben Wiles, dropping deeper to receive the ball rather than pushing up to support the striker. Didn’t have loads to do but was neat and tidy. Took his penalty well, probably the best one of the bunch.
Joe Taylor – 6 out of 10 – Added energy and pace to the team, but didn’t get much service. Will be disappointed with his penalty miss but grateful his teammates bailed him out.
Alfie May – 6 out of 10 – Won some fouls purely because of his energy and willingness to get kicked. Plays with a smile on his face that makes him likeable and fun to watch. Looked so comfortable taking his penalty that he was certain to score.
⁹Jay Sway – 7 out of 10 – Provided us with some useful runs to take off pressure and start attacks. After impressing in preseason, he deserves this chance. Miller’s injury and our lack of senior wingers could open a door for him but otherwise he may go out on loan as he looks ready for regular game time.
Lasse Sorensen – 6 out of 10 – Fine when he replaced Gooch and just managed to sneak his penalty past the keeper in the shootout.
Your Nicholls’ assessment is so apt even though he ended up being a hero, for some reason your comment about Kasamu’s surging forward runs reminded me of the countless surging backward runs he made last season chasing opponents, when others were incapable of doing so.
Given the recent overhaul of resources, it would have been impossible to imagine Nicholls, Voss and Ashia in the squad for any game of consequence, let alone being in the team, let alone occupying the starring roles in a cup victory against opposition from a higher league. The former had a goodish game allowing for your caveats plus the possible dive over Wilks’ strike. I have no recollection of him being a reliable penalty saver, certainly not at the rate of two in five. The latter replicated his finishing prowess with a not entirely dissimilar right-footed strike into the far corner although the build-up could not have been more different. and the quick-thinking Voss appeared almost out of nowhere to also score and give a good impersonation of a seasoned midfielder.
Coming from behind twice incorporating a good attitude and no little skill was very pleasing, especially as our so-called goal scorers yet again failed to convince.
Roll on Blackpool.
Coming from behind and scoring late goals are features of teams that do well. We hardly did either last season but have scored late goals in our first two league games and came from behind in this one. I’m worried that I’m getting overexcited about our good start to the season but everything seems to be pointing in the right direction at the moment.
Nicholls will have enjoyed his evening but I don’t know if he’ll stay or not. He’s probably too good to be a backup player but if I was Town, I wouldn’t want to sell him to a potential rival. If he also wants to be more or less guaranteed a starting role at any team he goes to, so that means there’s a fairly limited pool of potential teams he could go to. If Town also expect a transfer fee and you eliminate the teams that want a keeper that is good with his feet then the pool gets very small indeed.
Ashia’s goal last Saturday was excellent and showed good technique but there was a possibility it was the football equivalent of beginner’s luck. The fact he’s scored another beauty suggests there could be something special about him. He’ll need careful handling to make sure we don’t put too much expectation on his shoulders but at the same time, if he’s in red hot form it will be hard not to keep playing him.
I very much agree with your assessment, TS, and yours, Beck Lane.
The performance of Nicholls showed he’s a keeper from the old school, not comfortable to the modern way that the keeper has to be as comfortable with the ball at his feet as an outfield player. That doesn’t make him suddenly into a bad keeper; just that we are seeing evolution before our eyes; Goodman is the new creation whilst I’m afraid Nicholls might be the dinosaur.
Koroma would have been proud of that goal of Ashia. I’m certainly liking what I’m seeing of Ashia. Early days.
Some sympathy for Charles. Right now he doesn’t look like he could hit the proverbial barn door. Although Grant describes him as “level-headed”, I think we can all see that his confidence is rock bottom. Sometimes things get off on the wrong foot for a player with a club and they never get it back on the right foot. That, I fear, might be the fate of Dion Charles at Town.
Nicholls situation reminds me of the Pink Floyd lyric, “When the band you’re in start playing different tunes, I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon”. The team has changed around him multiple times over the course of his Town career but it feels like he’s been around for one too many regime change and doesn’t quite fit.
Ashia’s right footed curler was Koroma-esque but he didn’t spend the whole game repeatedly trying the same thing over and over, so he deserves even more credit. I doubt he’ll score screamers every week, so we may need to be patient at times but he looks like a real talent.
The mood at Town has changed a lot but sadly it doesn’t seemed to have helped Dion Charles with his potency in front of goal. It’s going to need one to bounce of his bum now to get him off the mark, as he’s not looking like creating a goal for himself any time soon. I’m not ready to write him off yet though as he does bring other qualities to the pitch when he plays even when he doesn’t score. Though with Alfie May and Joe Taylor ahead of him, he’s going to have to really prove himself to get into the team.
One thing that has struck me during our first three games is our superior fitness. Superior to that of the opposition and certainly superior to our own fitness levels last season. Rather like Wagner’s promotion side, we look as though we can play well within ourselves for much of the game with the ability to step things up and win the game in the final quarter.
I think that’s a really good point about fitness. The late goals in all three goals are a sign of this. I noticed when we played Man City in the FA Cup, it looked like we were doing ok because they didn’t score in the first half hour. What they were doing was toying with us and wearing us out by stroking the ball about and making us bust a gut to defend. Then once they’d ground us down, they turned on the style and won easily. Hopefully we can use our superior fitness in games where we’re up against teams that sit deep.
TerrierSpirit 9 out of 10
Mirrored most of the Town team.
Sadly went missing for big chunks of last season but has been prolific so far this season. Reads the game well and is entertaining.
Ha ha. I think you’re being generous there!
Much like the team and their football, I’m trying to put a bit more effort in this season. And like Town, it’s reasonable to worry it might not last.