Huddersfield Town bounced back from their drubbing at the hands of Mansfield last week by handing out a drubbing to Wimbledon yesterday. Neither result particularly matters in the grand scheme of things but it was at least some consolation to see the team play well. Wimbledon had secured survival in their penultimate game of the season so approached this game as a pre-holiday kickabout, so Town didn’t have to work too hard to find their openings. Even still, this was a genuinely good Huddersfield Town performance which is something we’ve seen very little of this season.
It’s easy to frame this game as a disappointment because we waited until our season was effectively over to show what we can do, Martin Drury certainly felt this way in his post-match comments. It’s probably more useful to see this as proof that Huddersfield Town aren’t fundamentally broken and there is potential, with some targeted recruitment, to make the shift from mid-table mediocrity to promotion chasers next season.
Here are some of my thoughts on this game…
Town finally show they can control a game
Before I go into the specific moments that helped Town win this match, it’s worth commenting on how well Town asserted themselves on this game. They were completely dominant in possession and did a good job of dictating the pace the game was played at (even if that way too often a slow pace for my liking).
Many times this season we’ve seen Town allow the opposition to set the tempo of a game, which then led to situations where games are wide open when we’re protecting a lead and frustratingly bitty when we’re in need of a goal. Wimbledon couldn’t cope with the clever, intricate passing moves we created. Marcus McGuane can be a bit too negative with his passing at times but in this game he knitted our passing moves together well and he was a factor in how well we kept the ball and progressed it up the field.
It was nice to see that we managed to move the ball purposefully in the final third too. Compared to the standard we’ve set with our attacking play this season, this was a big improvement. When we attacked there was a real enthusiasm from the players off the ball to get into space and create problems. The first goal was a good example of this, with Sorensen busting a gut to get forward, unmarked, to get on the end of Ledson’s clever pass.
Yes, it’s 45 games too late for Town to suddenly realise they’re able to boss other teams at this level but it at least provides a blueprint for next season.
Impressive goals
It’s hard to pick a favourite of the four Town goals, as all of them had something to like about them. None were as impressive as some of Ryan Ledson’s thunderbolts this season but they showed some of the qualities Town really need.
I’ve already mentioned how our opener was the result of Lasse Sorensen’s willingness to run from deep to crash into the box. But the move only started because of Humphreys pressing hard high up the pitch. And Harness does a brilliant dummy run to pull his defender out and make the space for Sorensen to run in to. If this was a Wimbledon blog, I’d be complaining about the defending but I really liked how well we worked as a cohesive unit to create this opportunity. And Sorensen deserves additional credit for finishing the move off with a bold finish. It looked like he’d hit it over but he managed to squeeze it under the bar.
The second goal came from a counter attack from a Wimbledon corner, showing the virtue of keeping a man up when defending them. Alves managed to bring the ball away, pick out May who had pulled wide, then May switched it to the other side to Humphreys who himself switched it back again to May to apply a clinical finish. The zig-zag one-two between May and Humphreys used the whole of Wimbledon’s half but worked really well. Compare that to the number of corners we’ve cleared but then immediately lost possession because we didn’t have anyone up the field to aim for.
The third goal would probably be my pick, even though it was fairly routine, just because it was nice to see a 19-year-old academy product score his first professional goal. Hopefully the first of many. George Sebine showed some good qualities with this goal, a good touch to receive May’s through ball, pace to evade his man, strength to make his half-yard advantage pay off and a cool finish under the keeper. After looking raw in his earlier outings, he now seems to be adjusting to senior football.
The game was over as a contest long before Alfie May scored the fourth but it was still a well-taken goal. Ledson played another excellent forward pass which May latched on to well and exploited some sloppy defending before a dinked finish over the keeper. Another striker’s goal, with May showing Sebine that he knows how to score them too. It’s been a bad season for Alfie May by any metric but this brace at least shows that he’s not a spent force at this level and has plenty to offer.
Some great individual performances
It was a good team performance as a whole but some individuals deserve a special mention.
Lasse Sorensen – Not many fullbacks finish a game thinking they should have had a hat-trick but Sorensen had two very presentable chances on top of the one he finished. I also loved how he basically bullied their left-back, Nkeng, at every opportunity. He rarely fouled him but he did harass him and push him around all through the game. Referees at a higher level would have punished many of these shoves but at League One there’s more leeway and it’s nice to see Town giving out a bit of rough treatment rather than being on the receiving end.
Ryan Ledson – I was quite disappointed with Ryan Ledson’s first half of the season. Too often he went missing and he seemed content to drift out of games. In the second half of the season he’s improved a lot and offered more attacking threat. His passing was excellent in the final third in this game, notching up two assists and creating a few other good chances too. He also hit the post following a mazy dribble as well as drawing a decent save from a blasted outside-the-box shot.
Alfie May – Compared to his previous few seasons, May has had a nightmare season. This game was the Alfie May I was expecting to see this season when we announced his signing. His movement was terrific, he linked play well, caused all sorts of problems for their defenders and most importantly, was ruthless with the chances we gave him. Two goals and an assist is a fair reward for his efforts.
Cam Humphreys – In most likely his last Town performance, Humphreys produced his best display. Like so many of Town’s players, he’s not consistently produced his best football but he was great to watch in this game. Perhaps being deployed further up the field and having Ledson and McGuane anchoring midfield gave him the licence to showcase his talents. Given we don’t really have anyone else with his ability on the ball and knack for finding space in the box, a new number ten should be on this summer’s shopping list.
Marcus McGuane – A lot of the good stuff that McGuane does is under the radar, tippy tappy passing but it does help us keep the ball and move up the pitch. It was notable that his passing was more forward than backwards in this game, which was the most obvious reason why he played better in this game. His injury that led to him being subbed off looked nasty but hopefully it’s just a knock and he will be fully fit by the time preseason comes around.
There were others such as Wallace, Harness and Sebine that probably deserve a mention too but this section is already too long.
What now for Huddersfield Town?
I feel like I say this at the end of every season, but it’s a big summer ahead for Huddersfield Town and it’s vital we get it right. But we never seem to manage to get it right. Maybe this time it will be different but after another disappointing campaign, it’s hard to be too optimistic.
This game against Wimbledon showed that we’re capable of playing well but we were playing against a team that only scraped survival in their penultimate game and were playing with their flip flops on. To really do well, we’ll need to find a way to consistently dominate games when the stakes are higher and the opposition better.
The immediate things for Huddersfield Town to sort out will be the retained list and the managerial situation. My guess will be that few of the players with expiring contracts will be offered new deals. Mickel Miller, Rhys Healey (I’d forgotten about him too), Nik Tzanev and Neo Ecclestone are the only players out of contract this summer according to the website Transfmrkt and I can’t see any of them being kept on. Mickel Miller is a tricky decision as he’d obviously deserve a new deal if he could keep himself fit. But his whole career has been overshadowed by persistent injuries, so it’s hard to see that changing any time soon.
As for the managerial situation, it’s an uncertain period. I think Liam Manning was incredibly brave to admit he needed a break and it’s completely right that he put his family first. I’d guess now we’ve reached the end of the period of absence that was initially announced there will be a decision to be made. Either he’ll leave permanently, come back or extend his leave to further recover. Mental health isn’t like a physical injury and the healing process is more complex and erratic. My hope is that Manning’s time away has given him the opportunity to feel better and he can come back ready to take on the challenge at Huddersfield Town.
On a human level, I want Manning to come back so he can complete his recovery. But from a selfish perspective, I also think he’s a far better manager than anyone else we’re likely to be able to attract to the job, based on his track record. I also think it’s generally better to have continuity rather than constantly pinning our hopes on the next manager daft enough to attempt the job.
Stead and Drury have done a better job than the results suggest. If we’d have not conceded so many injury time goals in those vital games in the middle of their run then things could have been different. I wouldn’t be too concerned if their period in charge was extended to give Liam Manning more time to focus on himself and his family but I don’t think we should consider them as a permanent replacement to Manning. They’ve done pretty well but the Huddersfield Town job should be a prestigious role that’s awarded to managers that have proved themselves elsewhere, not handed out to someone fresh out of coaching school that sounds impressive in an interview (yes I’m talking about Lee Grant).
In all honesty, I’m glad this season is over. Huddersfield Town have been a source of frustration and disappointment for large parts of this season. Rather than looking forward to matches, it felt too much like a chore to get out of the way. Thankfully every new season is a chance for football clubs to renew themselves. And as disappointing as this season has been, I’m sure a couple of months of no games and then the first pictures of the players coming back for preseason training will reignite my enthusiasm.
Any other business
Final day weather – What a glorious day we had for this game. Having followed Town for over thirty years, I can’t remember a final game of the season that wasn’t beautifully sunny. It’s a weird meteorological phenomena that seems to do this, or maybe I’ve just got a bad memory but it’s nice this tradition continued.
Matt Glennon was extra salty on commentary – There was a bit of a “last day of school” feel to Oggy and Glennon’s coverage of this game on Radio Leeds and I quite enjoyed it. Both seemed a bit more willing to moan about Huddersfield Town’s problems this season and were pretty un-BBC like in their willingness to express their opinions. I’d like a bit more of this from the commentary. I suppose they’ve both got to maintain a relationship with the club and slating the players might jeopardise that but throwing in a bit more of their personal opinion improved their commentary.
Sorensen smile – If you watch back Sorensen’s goal you will see that he didn’t crack a smile when he scored his goal. He punched the air and had a sort of determined scowl on his face. It made me realise that he very rarely seems to smile on the pitch, which is a shame as I think footballers do better when they enjoy their craft. He seems a fairly affable personality in his media interviews, so maybe he needs to lighten up a bit. Too many of our players don’t take playing for Huddersfield Town seriously enough but he might be the rare case of taking it too seriously.
Town fans in good voice – It’s reasonable to question the sanity of the Town faithful that made this trip down to Wimbledon for a game that meant nothing following a heavy defeat against a poor opponent the week before. But the fans deserve credit for the persistent racket that came from the away end. And I’m delighted that those fans that made this effort were rewarded with plenty of goals and a beautiful sunny day.
An apology – It’s a bit rich that I’ve complained about the players not turning up this season when I’ve been absent from this blog since January. While the football hasn’t encouraged me to take to my keyboard, I have also been busy with family and other projects. I toyed with giving up this blog but my current plan is to keep going, at least for next season. I’ll try to do some end of season articles in the next week, after that I’ll probably take a break again until preseason starts and there’s more to write about. Thank you to all of you who have read my articles this season and especially those that take the time to comment.
I think you could have saved yourself the trouble of writing this report TS as it’s entirely pointless.
It doesn’t matter how the team played in a dead rubber against Wimbledon in the last match of the season.
It’s meaningless. The Championship ship sailed long ago and when it mattered, this team, players and managers, couldn’t get onboard. They couldn’t even get in the dockyard.
If ever there was a season to get promoted it was this one. Most of the teams in Div 1 are really poor. Next season with Sheffield Wed and Leicester in the mix it’s going to be so much more difficult.
Fair comments Eddy. In some ways this performance makes the rest of the season worse because they showed they can do it if they want to. And I also agree it was a poor standard in League One this season and we missed an easy chance to go up.
I think “the group” has crumbled under even the slightest pressure this season and we’ve played out best against weak teams or in minor cups. Big games have led to us going into our shell far too often.
Welcome back, we your readers have missed you. Best Town performance I’ve seen for a long time. Hopefully onwards and upwards🤞.
Thanks Glenn.
This game and the last show why we must try and sighn Alves and Humpheries in the close season.
I agree with you about Humphreys but not Alves. Humphreys started slowly but has been one of our best players in the last few weeks. I wrote in my notes for this game that Alves plays like a headless chicken. He runs around in circles with the ball and then gets into trouble. He’s clearly got talent and can dribble but it doesn’t seem to ever result in anything useful for the team. But we do desperately need some flair players with pace and skill, Ashia’s contract is up and I doubt he’ll sign a new one, which leaves Harness as our only winger and you could argue he’s better in midfield.
I personally think Stead and Drury should be offered the job. They are Huddersfield lads and will put their all into the job.
I’ve been quite impressed by both of them so far, to be fair. You’re right that their local connection helps with connecting with fans but I also like the way they talk about the game. They’ve clearly tried to get the team to play better more attacking football. It used to wind me up when Lee Grant complained that the players hadn’t been told to drop deep but would do it anyway. When it started to happen mid-game for Stead and Drury, one of them is on the touchline screaming and gesticulating for them to push up and be braver.
After two unsuccessful years in League One, I’d really like next season to be different. For that reason, I’d like to see someone with a track record at this level if we do have to find a new manager. I think we sometimes try to be too clever with out managerial appointments when a safer bet would be more likely to get us over the line.
Welcome back.
Thanks Paul.
Good to have you back TS. More please as we supporters overseas really appreciate you views.
Thanks Peter. It always surprises me how many Town fans there are scattered around the world. We get everywhere!
MANY THANKS. Your blog is always enjoyable to read. Maybe just do it as and when you feel like it rather than full on for 10 games then disappearing. But all editions gratefully received… maybe next season you will have something more positive to write about. If Mr Manning returns then hopefully he will have seen the light and start to play a more attacking formation with less safety first football. if so then great.. if there’s no change then we may grind out results but it will be another hard watch. If only I had a spare 100 million am sure i could sort things out
Thanks Paul, I really appreciate it. You’ve got a point at aiming for a more steady flow of blogs rather than a burst of activity and then silence for ages. I also need to write shorter articles so they’re a bit less effort to write. The problem is stopping once I’ve got going.
I think Liam Manning’s dull football was because his first job when he came in was to stop us shipping goals, which had become a big issue at the end of Lee Grant’s time. But stopping the goals led to us being unable to score them ourselves. Stead and Drury swung things back the other way, perhaps too much, and we’ve ended up on the wrong end of a few high-scoring games.
With a full preseason and good recruitment, I’d hope we do a better job of picking a philosophy and sticking to it. For all the waffle we are fed, I’m still not sure I could tell a stranger the “Huddersfield” way of playing the game.
Fair point , next season in league 1 will be a lot harder . Which is good in one way, the gap from league 1 to bottom ish of the Championship, getting closer . Imperative Town recruitment is right for league 1 . 2 big defenders required, 2 midfielders, at least 1 big striker, plus a couple of wingers .
Get rid of as many as possible of the so called players on Towns payroll.
Another very important aspect, 3 players returning to Huddersfield. Taylor , Ioprenda ,
And Chapman. All have excelled on there loan periods . These 3 should all be starters next season.
Manning should be given more help , time to recover, including his team .
UTT-⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️🙏
It’ll be a big test for Chris Markham’s wheeling and dealing skills this summer. We’ve loads of players still on contracts which I suspect we’d prefer to offload if we could. If you include Sebine we have five first team strikers and arguably still need to sign a big target man (a long-term fixation of mine).
I’m quite excited about Tom Iorpenda’s return. If he wasn’t already our player, he’d be exactly the sort of signing we should be looking at, a young player that’s a top performer at League Two level and clearly has the quality to play at a higher level. I just hope we can get the best out of him. I thought it was crazy to loan Taylor out and I hope we manage to bring him back in next season, but I suspect we’d sell him if a Championship club fancied him and we could get our money back. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Chapman, he’s not a young kid any more so should really be playing regularly wherever he is next season for the benefit of his career.
I’d guess we’ll find out more about Manning’s plans soon and that will impact the next steps. Drury and Stead seem to have everything covered for now though, so I suppose there’s no rush.
Keep the faith Terrier Spirit, your balanced reports are always welcome, especially for us Town exiles. It felt like the brakes were off on Sat, and a real case of “what if”. We finally saw the real Alfie May, I go to The Valley often as I have a Charlton mate(old enough to be at the infamous 7-6 match) and I saw May frequently. Admittedly his earlier perfs this season were hampered by him needing to drop deep due to lack of service, but more recently he fluffed almost every decent chance he had. So hopefully he has got his mojo back. I have seen talk that he will be sold which would not be a good move imho.
Limited opportunities for a big clear-out in summer due to contract situations, but we saw on Sat that there is some quality in the squad, a couple of key signings and the right set up & we can kick on.
UTT
Thank you for your kind words.
It’s been strange watching May this season. He seemed like a bubly, funny personality at first but as the season has gone on and his frustration has ramped up, he’s seemed like he’s being playing under a cloud. It wouldn’t stun me if he left in the summer, as you mention, but I hope he stays.
Thank you TS, you have been missed
Thanks Graham. I’m genuinely touched by all the lovely messages.
Interesting comment “rarely fouled him” . The number of times Town fouled opposition players this season instead of just putting the defenders under pressure. Hope for next season if we can get a productive May / Taylor partnership and McGuane (and anybody else) actually stays fit. On Glennon my favourite comment was after Oggy mentioned an attempted cross field pass that went astray, Glennon’s response was “I think you will find that was a shank into touch”
Maybe I have the mind of a bully, because I quite like seeing players getting stuck in even if it means conceding a foul occasionally (obviously in the right areas of the pitch). I think there has been a rise across the board of cynical “taking one for the team” fouls, where the booking is better than allowing an opposition attack to develop.
I hear the odd bit of criticism Towards Oggy and Glennon but I always really enjoy listening them. When you hear other club’s radio commentators it makes you realise how lucky we are to have them.
Mind you there is getting stuck In then there is Dion Charles!
After watching Danny Ward for all those years, it’s hard to get too excited about another striker that runs around a lot and bothers defenders but doesn’t often score goals.
I’m sure I speak for all, or most, of our readers – we’ve missed you! Very pleased to hear you are going to continue with your blog next season.
I can’t say I blame you for ‘switching off’ a bit when it comes to HTAFC in these last few months. It really has been pretty dismal stuff with just a few sprinklings of stardust now and again just to keep us all believing.
I’m afraid football management isn’t a place for sentiment. I absolutely wish Liam Manning and his family all the very best but I’m afraid Manning’s goose was already cooked well before he was given compassionate leave. I suspect there would have been something in his contract, maybe even a break clause, about achieving or not achieving promotion this season. And so we start again. With whom? I don’t have the first clue. That said, I think there may be something to be said to keep faith with the Stead & Drury combo; they’ve not done a lot wrong.
I agree – clear out as many as possible. And please don’t sign any more players with dubious fitness records! Town have wasted a fortune on crocked players in recent seasons.
Alfie May? If what I read about his wages is true, I’m afraid it’s way over the top. If he shows signs of wanting to leave, let him go. You can be pretty sure Joe Taylor won’t be back. And I don’t think there’s any hope left for Dion Charles. So it’s pretty much back to square one with the glimmer of hope that Radulovic might continue to improve.
And it looks like we’re going to need a new first choice goalkeeper. I can’t say I’ve been impressed by Nicholls this season, and definitely not Alnwick. This season got off to a poor start in this department with Goodman.
But I could go on about requiring a new this or new that. Ultimately it’s a team game and, as has been shown by Lincoln City this season, you don’t necessarily need deep pockets to build a successful team at this level. That’s the job of the coach. So we will no doubt all be watching this space to see what happens over the next few weeks.
Looking forward to reading what you have to say, TS, and your contributors too, over the close season.
Thanks Simon. I’ve blogged through worse season than the last one but I think the accumulated years of disappointment > raised expectations > further disappointment has ground down my enthusiasm. But a few months without games will most likely be enough to rekindle my interest in Town.
I can see your point about Manning having a difficult path back. I think it will take a lot of emotional strength for him to step back in. The way we get through managers it would make sense to pay them on a game-by-game basis and put them up at the Travelodge on Leeds Road but I suspect you’re right that there’ll be a complicated HR situation with his contract in this scenario. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.
As for injured players. I thought we’d learned our lesson but only in January we signed Ryan Hardie despite the fact he was injured at the time and barely kicked a ball before picking up another injury setback. Shame, as he might have mad the difference but it was always very likely to happen.
I’d be happy to see Taylor and May at the club next season but both are probably more inclined to move away and try their luck at a club somewhere else.
I’d be surprised if there were many keepers better than Nicholls that would be willing to come to us and we gave him a new contract early on in this season. Alnwick looks like a poor signing based on his few appearances so far, despite his vast experience, he looked like a nervous wreck whenever he played.
I agree with yor point about Lincoln showing that team spirit and good organisation can get you a long way at this level. Town played like a bunch of strangers for most of this season. I’m hoping next year we’ll play with a clearer game plan (or identity if you want to sound fancy) and play to the strengths of our better players.
Glad you are back , always an interesting read Terrier Spirit , balanced and fair. A disaster of a season , very poor defensively even though the coaches insist on playing five at the back plus Ledson ,but we still let in sixty four goals ! As for the manager we will see regarding Manning but although Drury and Stead did open up a little we let in far to many goals under them ,I would rather have an experienced manager that keeps it simple and has a strong defence ,titles are won if you do not concede .
Thanks! I think a lot of our problem was not being able to consistently put out a settled back line. Chopping and changing can be effective in the forward positions but I think consistency and familiarity really helps build a defence. Murray Wallace is arguably our fifth choice central defender so he shouldn’t have played that many games. Whatmough, Balker and Low didn’t all three play together to my recollection, so we didn’t ever really get to see our best central defenders playing at the same time.
I seem to remember that Liam Manning prefers 4-2-3-1 as his formation of choice, so if he comes back we might see a return to a back four. Though then we’ll have to work out what to do with all the wingbacks we have on the books.
In a sequence of really poor seasons this one stands out as the worst. After our pathetic efforts against the 10 men of Stockport I was so despondent I didn’t go again until January. The fact that the division was so weak this season made it worse, a great chance for promotion gone begging.
My biggest hope for next season is for better luck with injuries and better loan signings. Who knows what may have been achieved had the likes of Gooch,Whatmough, McGuane,Evans,Radulovic,Low and May been available on a more regular basis. We’ll never know what Redmond or Hardy might have added or a full season of Castledine.
Hopefully the exit of Rhys Healey (finally) will persuade the powers that be to stop taking expensive risks on injured, or injury prone, players.
I’ll be renewing my season ticket again so I’ll be there to see what unfolds,ever the optimist.
‘It’s the hope that kills you’ really was how it felt this season. I was, and wasn’t, surprised at the empty home seats near the end of the season. Next season, although I understand the ‘old hand on the tiller’ reasoning, I would keep the coaching staff as is, whether Liam returns or not, and get some consistency. Too many changes for me. It’s time to give a caoching team a good long run to get us consistent.
No player out of contract I would keep. Gone quiet on Ashia so I assume he doesn’t want an extended contract or we don’t want to give him one. Probaby bring Hardie in if we think his injuries are short term and sortable, he has a good record prior to this season. If we could get Humphries I would, for the right price. Chapman, Taylor & Iorpenda back should help. Hope we keep May & Taylor.
Next season we will not , hopefully, look the best team in the division, with all the expectation that brings. A bit of realism won’t go amiss.
Keep your blog going when it works for you. Needs to be something you want to do rather than feel like an obligation.
Hope everyone has a great summer.