Nathan Jones is a fantasist, Huddersfield Town overcome intial struggles, Sinani shines, prawn sandwich fans and liking Luton – Notes on the first leg of the playoffs

Huddersfield Town came away from Kenilworth Road with a 1-1 draw that sets up a winner-takes-all game at the John Smith’s Stadium on Monday night. It was an evenly balanced game where each team had spells of dominance but a draw was an overall fair reflection of the game. 

Both sides can feel aggrieved that obvious penalty decisions weren’t given but at least the referee’s two mistakes canceled each other out. Some other less vital decisions weren’t quite right either but thankfully the poor officiating didn’t spoil a tense but enjoyable encounter. 

Here are a few of my thoughts on the game… 

Town did well to cling on when they were struggling 

The first half was not always pretty from a Town perspective. We did counter-attack well at times but long stretches of the game involved Luton dominating possession and looking to find holes in Town’s defence. One of the hallmarks of Town’s game this season has been our ability to hang in there when it’s not going our way. Town may not have been playing well but they kept their shape nicely, everyone stuck to their task and Luton weren’t able to create many quality chances.

Town seemed to struggle in the first half because they couldn’t get the ball out of their own half. We could win the ball back easily enough but were sloppy in the build up phase of our attacks and often made simple mistakes in possession that trapped us in our own half. We improved upon this greatly in the second half and were more careful with how we moved the ball about in our own half.

The second half showed Town can dominate 

The second half of the game was like a different game altogether. Town dominated possession and were on the front foot for the majority of the half. There were a handful of half chances that we carved out but weren’t able to take the lead. However, there were a lot of positives to take from this part of the game and if we continue in a similar vein on Monday night I can see us winning the game.

Sarr, Holmes and Sinani shine

The above three players are probably the ones I had least faith in going into this match but all three proved their worth over the course of the game. This was useful as players such as O’Brien and Ward weren’t able to produce the kind of performance that they’ve typically achieved over the course of the season.

Naby Sarr had a few hairy moments which could have led to penalties but he came through unscathed in the end. The tussle with Cameron Jerome looked like a penalty in real time and even worse on the replays but maybe Sarr managed to pull out from the challenge enough to put an element of doubt in the referee’s mind. While I still hope Colwill is fit to play on Monday, Naby Sarr has shown he can still do a job for Town.

Going forward, Sinani was the most influential creative player in my opinion. I thought this was one of his best games for Town and he was the player that made things happen when we were attacking. That’s before I even mention his superb goal. I suspect Bradley thought Sinani presented no danger as long as he was on his weaker foot, so steering him onto his right made sense until Sinani curled in a beauty to the bottom corner. 

Duane Holmes was another key player that found his best form on the night. A large part of Town’s improvement in the second half was down to Holmes getting on the ball more and linking up with others around him. He made himself available regularly and when he received the ball he did something positive with it. I hope he can keep that up for the second leg.

I quite like Luton Town

Playoff battles in previous years have led me to feel a level of animosity towards the team we face but I actually think Luton are a decent team. Their rise up the football league has been phenomenal and the way they play football is hard to criticise. 

Much like Huddersfield Town, Luton Town are built on a foundation of hard graft but they also know how to play decent football when the opportunity is there too. I’ll come on to their manager later, as he’s a bit of a prat, but the team as a whole and the way they play football is admirable to say the least.

Obviously I’m desperate for Huddersfield Town to make it to Wembley but if we don’t manage to get there, I will unquestionably be cheering Luton on in the final and hope that they make it to the Premier League. After the patronising treatment we received from the national press when we went up, they’ll lose their mind when they visit Kenilworth Road.

Nathan Jones is a complete fantasist 

So I’ve said nice things about Luton as a team but their manager is clearly a bit of a loon. I’m not too bothered about his frothy mouthed arm waving from the touchline, Carlos is guilty of similar, but his comments after the game were absolutely bonkers.

It’s clear that Nathan Jones lives in some kind of fantasy world where everyone is out to get him and he’s always fighting against incredible injustice. His post-match interview included some baffling comments where he tried to suggest that our team is the Championship equivalent of Manchester City, stacked full of expensive acquisitions. Despite the fact that Pipa was the only player he named that we paid anything like a proper transfer fee for and that his own team has plenty of players that were bought for fees.

I’m not so keen on getting drawn into a Monty Python four yorkshiremen style sketch where we argue over who spent the least on their team but to suggest that we’re the big boys and they’re the underdogs is utter drivel. Both Luton and Huddersfield have massively overachieved this season and both deserve credit regardless of which team wins on Monday. 

Town fans made a racket 

I think the club got their ticket priority system seriously wrong for this game, with the thousand or so tickets all getting snapped up by Blue and White Foundation members with season cards rather than being offered to those that have been to the most away games this season. There was plenty of outrage on social media when the club announced that the tickets had gone and some fans suggested that the atmosphere would suffer because those with tickets weren’t the usual die hard fans. That wasn’t the case.

I watched the game on Sky but the din coming from the away end was coming through the TV speakers loud and clear throughout the game. Those few Town fans that managed to get tickets did the players, the club and the rest of us fans proud and helped to create a great atmosphere for the game. While there will be time to sort out the away ticket priority for next season down the line, at least it didn’t affect the atmosphere for this game.

The challenge is now for the twenty-odd thousand Town fans to make it a hostile atmosphere for Luton on Monday. Playoff games are always special and I’m very excited to be part of the atmosphere for the second leg. While the amount of influence any individual fan can have is relatively minor, collectively we can all push the team forward and help the players to get us over the line.