Huddersfield Town will face Nottingham Forest away in the next round of the cup after their victory over Barnsley saw them into the last 16. Like most of Town’s recent games, against Barnsley there were good bits, bad bits and some key moments that went Town’s way.
Town’s unbeaten run is now standing at 12 games and it’s hard to ignore the fact that this team are pretty good. For all the fears of doom and relegation at the start of the season, if we can beat a team that are currently below us in the league table in the next round we’ll be in the quarter finals and one game away from a semi-final at Wembley. Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself but surely that’s part of the magic of the cup.
Anyway, here are a few of my thoughts on the game.
A deserved win that could have been comfortable
I’ll talk about the luck Town had later but it’s worth stating first that we were better than Barnsley on the day and it was, on balance, the right outcome that Town made it through. We started the game brightly and attacked them with vigour and purpose, regularly creating chances and causing problems.
The game’s only goal was a lovely move with Thomas’ long ball being expertly headed down by Koroma to set Holmes up to apply the finish.
There were a plethora of other presentable chances that Town failed to capitalise on too. Jon Russell’s one on one with the keeper that saw his shot go agonisingly wise in the closing moments was the best of them. But Rhodes had a couple of good chances, Thomas blasted straight at the keeper from close range, Ward hit the post, Turton had a goal (rightly) ruled out for offside and Koroma was clear through on goal but a heavy touch allowed the keeper to snuff the chance out.
Town didn’t dominate the full 90 minutes of this game but they did carve out plenty of chances and if they had been more clinical in the final third this could have been a far more comfortable victory.
Sitting back after getting ahead
Once again, our good start was interrupted by scoring a goal. Going ahead is the worst thing this team can do at the moment as it almost always leads to momentum swinging to our opponent, Town dropping deep and then losing their foothold in the game.
Thankfully in this game Barnsley weren’t up to much when they attacked but they enjoyed long periods of possession and Town failed to build meaningful attacks with the same regularity after Duane Holmes’s goal.
It has been established that these spells where we drop off and let the opposition have a turn aren’t a tactical instruction from the bench and represent more of a psychological flaw in this team. I find it interesting it happened on Saturday despite it being a different team to the usual league lineup.
I suppose it’s natural that the other team are going to come back into the game after conceding but it also shows that one of Town’s biggest weak spots is their inability to dictate the tempo of a game. If we had a player that could take the sting out of the game when we’ve gone ahead, to settle things down and kill the pace a bit we would be much better off.
I’m not going to complain too much when Town are doing so well lately but if we can control the flow of games better we’ll surely stand a better chance of winning games like this one by two or three rather than squeaking past teams by a single goal. Then again, Town rarely do things the easy way!
Outrageous luck helps Town again
I wanted to be really clear that Town deserved to win this game before talking about how much luck contributed to the outcome too. One less layer of paint on the goalposts and Naby Sarr could have scored an own goal but instead the ball hammered the inside of the post and came back out.
Then the biggest piece of luck came in the final moments when Barnsley had a perfectly good equaliser ruled out for a push on Matty Pearson that may earn him a nod in tomorrow’s Oscar nominations. In real time it seemed like the right decision given that Pearson had fallen in a heap just as the ball crossed the line. A fan’s recording of the incident posted on Twitter revealed it was actually an outrageous dive and Barnsley were very unlucky.
After years of feeling like Town are always on the wrong end of decisions and are an unlucky team this season has been a different story. We’ve regularly had the rub of the green and have significantly benefited from key moments going our way. Koroma should have seen red against Stoke (and then scored moments later), Stearman was given his marching orders in the Derby game for a challenge many referees would have only given a booking, huge deflections have led to goals and that’s just the last few games.
I think the old adage of making your own luck is true and perhaps this Town team are skilled at forcing situations where they get a bit of luck. For example, Pearson’s leap forward after the most minimal of contact was so blatant that I suspect the officials viewing through a crowded box assumed only a vicious shove could have created such a dramatic tumble.
Referees letting everything go
After saying that the game was hugely influenced by the referee blowing for a foul that wasn’t, I’m going to contradict myself by saying this referee was also guilty of letting some pretty shocking fouls go unpunished too.
I’ve quite liked how referees have been a lot more reluctant to give fouls this season. I don’t know whether this is an official decision or a consequence of top flight refs and VAR being more permissive and it trickling down but Town’s games this season feel to have had fewer fouls given and the game is allowed to flow more. I don’t have a problem with this as long as it’s applied evenly and obviously bad tackles are still punished.
On Saturday I think this was taken too far at times and poor challenges went unpunished by both sides but particularly from Barnsley on Town players. I’ve always been of the opinion that fans pay to see footballers playing rather than referees interfering but there comes a point where player safety becomes a concern. I think this ref let far too much slide (literally) in this match. Whether it was a deliberate tactic or he just didn’t see dodgy challenges, add these moments to missing Pearson’s theatrical dive and questions should be asked about the performance of this ref and his assistants.
Town’s backup options are pretty good
There were a sprinkling of Town’s regular eleven in the starting lineup for this game but the majority of the team on the pitch were backup players yet there wasn’t a significant drop off in quality. Ruffels, Blackman, Rhodes, Russell, Eiting, Pipa, Koroma and Sarr wouldn’t feature in Town’s current best eleven but all are seasoned pros that showed (with the exception of Sarr perhaps) that they can come in and perform close to the level of the players currently getting into the team ahead of them.
If you compare our cup team this season to the one we fielded against Plymouth in the FA Cup last season it is night and day in terms of quality. There were exceptional circumstances last season that led to one of the least experienced teams we’ve ever fielded being selected but even so, it shows how much we’ve moved on this season in terms of squad depth.
While the prospect of a place in the quarter finals might tempt Carlos to pick his first choice eleven against Forest, I’m hoping he perseveres with a mix of backups and first choices. Resting key players keeps them fresh for the league and giving the likes of Jon Russell and Josh Ruffels more minutes also gives them a chance to show they could do a job in the Championship too.
Jon Russell – time to get excited?
I’ve already praised Jon Russell in my player ratings article but it’s worth heaping more on him here too. He looked superb in front of the defence and looks almost exactly like the kind of player we’ve hoped to have in that role for a while now. He is physically big enough to bully other players off the ball, has a delicate touch that allows him to receive the ball in tight spaces then guide the ball back to safety and he also has the passing range to launch attacks from deep.
I know my love for Russell isn’t controversial as almost every reference I’ve seen about him after the game was full of even more glowing praise. While I doubt he’ll replace Hoggy in the immediate future, a few more performances like this and it can’t be long before he’s given a go in the league.
The only critical comment I’ve seen after the game was Steven Chicken in the Examiner, pointing out his lack of pace (while otherwise joining in the love-in) and I think he has a point. A bit like Alex Vallejo and Jon Stankovic before him, Russell looks good with the ball at his feet but doesn’t look all that mobile when tracking runners or breaking forward. Speed isn’t something that tends to improve with experience, so it’s possible that against better teams, Russell may struggle a bit more. Defensive midfield is probably the position on the pitch where a lack of pace isn’t such a big deal but it may explain why Scott High was preferred to Russell when Hogg was injured.
How far can Town go in the cup?
It’s 100 years since Town last triumphed in the cup and it’s hard not to get carried away now we’re into the last 16 and up against another Championship team. While Forest have turned their season around after a horrendous start, Town can go into that game with nothing to fear and have a reasonable chance of progressing to the quarter finals.
Who knows what could happen from there but the fact Town are two games away from a semi at Wembley is pretty exciting. While our continued presence in or close to the top six naturally leaves us wondering about a trip to Wembley in the playoffs, what a treat it would be to have a day out in London with purely cup glory on the line.
Trying to keep my feet on the ground, so far we’ve only beaten two relegation threatened teams that weren’t particularly interested in cup progression but the MAGIC OF THE CUP means I’m starting to dream about what could be possible. Will I still be whining about Town not controlling midfield enough after we’ve beaten Man City in the final with 10% possession after Matty Pearson dives to win a penalty in the last minute of the game? Probably yes!
Very good, well written article. Particularly liked the self critical yet joking bit at end, about still wanting Town to have controlled midfield better. But there’s nowt wrong with that. We are “Huddersfield Town”, after all. A potentially big club if we ever had Owners who financed us and a Club which has had a large impact on the World of Football, let alone what we ve done, which has a very good very loyal following, & a particularly good away support over the years, so we should be insisting on
high standards. & what a dream it would be to beat Man City at Wembley lol 😃
I also particularly liked what you said about how we need a player in midfield to control the pace of the game, and not just because I’ve said it myself, previously, a lot, in other places, but also because I feel it’s necessary.
Hopefully, Tino Anjarin can be that man for us, though he seems more of a No 10 & I hope like we all do he doesn’t break down with injury again quickly & doesn’t take too long to be ready to 1st be included in Town’s 1st Team Matchday Squad. Also some1 to alter the pace of a game is usually more begfitting of an older player with more experience but being rated by Chelsea & England prob means he has intelligence as well as skills so just being intelligent may mean he knows how and when to speed or slow games up but good training can teach players these things from a young age anyway, but like I said, he appears as though he may. be better suited as a No 10, though could still do a good job for us at Championship Level in Central Midfield too, I hope. We could maybe call on Eiting to be our midfield general controlling direction of attack, threading balls up to our front line and for controlling from.centre speed of play in attack or defensively, but, I feel, fairly sure, Eiting is going to break down injury wise again b4 too long, & really hope I’m wrong with that, but for that reason, I feel it’s unsafe, to rely on using Eiting for that purpose from Central Midfield for too long.
We need not only a central midfielder to create chances, but to also vary the direction we attack other team’s boxes, but also crucial, to turning us into closer to a very good team is some1 in centre to speed or slow the game down as he decides, 1 to keep opposition defences more on hop and make them nervous (less able to predict to know the direction of our attack or what the speed of it will be) but also as you said to take the sting out of the game because it’s noticeable most other teams will score after they’ve built up a head of steam for a while but less likely to if the fire in the game has been taken out of it for a while.
Mooy!
There isn’t such a thing as an outrageous dive in todays football. The days of being clattered and jumping back up are long gone. The rule now is that if you feel a slight contact you must throw yourself to the floor, preferably roll over a few times clutching your knee. Beating the grass is optional. Grade 1 is to get a foul, grade 2 you get your opponent booked and best of all grade 3 is to get him sent off. Then when recovering you must limp a few steps unless someone passes you the ball then recovery is instant. Pearson carried out the procedure to the letter. Two hands in his back and he was obliged to throw himself forward thus getting the decision. Well done Matty.
John Holmes, sadly you are right and its a load of nonsense that id rather not pay to watch.
Agree with all you say, apart from one minor ‘nitpick’ – I believe it was against Stoke that Koroma should have had the red card, before he scored, rather than Reading?
You’re right! I’ll go back and fix it.