Some random thoughts about Huddersfield Town’s 1-0 victory over Bradford City

In Liam Manning’s first game as manager, we saw a team playing with the parts of the game that we’ve been badly missing for the majority of this season. Grit, fight, bravery and energy were the qualities that stood out over the 90 minutes, which gave Town the platform to then play quality football at times too. It was the sort of front-foot, aggressive football that we’d been promised under the banner of “Northern Football” even though the reality under Lee Grant was a far more tepid and sanitised version. 

It’s been a struggle to find time to do writeups about Huddersfield Town recently, so this article is a bit of an experiment. Here are my random thoughts on Town’s brilliant 1-0 victory over Bradford City. 

How the game unfolded

• Town made a brilliant, positive start which set them up for the game. Given our tendency to not show up in big games, it was refreshing to see Town be the ones on the front foot and our opponents reeling and struggling to cope with our intensity.

• McGuane’s push was rightly a yellow card and could even have been a straight red. However, the Bradford player should have received a yellow too for a cynical push that sent McGuane into the advertising hoardings. Even though this booking ultimately cost McGuane, I’m pleased he pushed back. We’ve been too passive in similar situations this season, too keen to be nice guys. While we don’t want every game to be a bloodbath, I’m always quite pleased to see a little bit of nastiness when it helps fire everyone up.

• Gooch missed a sitter early in the first half which could have been a big “what if” moment if we’d not gone on to win the game. The play that created the chance was superb though, with Harness doing well to release May and then May’s shot testing the keeper. We know that Gooch can strike the ball cleanly when shooting on goal, so it was a major disappointment when he didn’t find the target, which was a mostly unguarded goal.

• One of the key differences in this new-look, Liam Manning version of Huddersfield Town was the work rate. Our pressing was intense and the whole team put in a collective effort. This meant that Bradford couldn’t settle on the ball and their passing game fell to pieces. Another useful element was Nicholls tending to kick long, which meant the ball spent more time in Bradford’s half and less time in ours. Maybe we didn’t have as much controlled possession because of this approach but it was much better to watch as a fan, compared to endless tapping it around the back line.

• To my eyes, the formation we played in this game was the same system Lee Grant had us playing recently but it seemed to work better. Marcus McGuane’s business on the ball helped to knit things together and everyone seemed to be playing ten yards further up the field than usual. Which perhaps shows why formations aren’t always the most important thing and it’s more about the effort and application from the players.

• Harness, playing in what I still consider the Castledine role, deserved his goal even if it was a bit of a gift, because he showed a willingness to get into the right areas.  Radulovic was unlucky to have header saved but he did enough with it to mean the keeper’s parry could only be diverted into the danger zone. May’s positivity created the opening really. Though the goal only happened because Mumba took a quick throw in and caught Bradford unprepared. And if we go back a step further, it was a quick-thinking ball boy that allowed Mumba to take a quick throw

• Radulovic played like an absolute bully. A constant nuisance to Bradford’s defence and he showed a real appetite to get stuck into them. So much so that Tilt chucked him on the floor in frustration at one point and was lucky the ref didn’t pick it up. The biggest surprise in his turnaround in fortunes at Huddersfield Town is how he’s gone from a lightweight who disappeared in games after getting roughed up to a bruiser who’s constantly shoving his elbows into the ribs of opposition defenders. 

• First half exactly what we wanted to see. Out fought Bradford and then played positive attacking football when we could. Bradford’s first half pass completion 56% (38% in the attacking third), shows how little time we gave them on the ball and how they struggled to string passes together.

• Bradford came back into the game in the second half somewhat, after making three changes at half time. Town had a spell where their energy levels dropped but they kept their shape well, limited Bradford’s opportunities and didn’t look to be under any threat.

• Town’s improved attitude was neatly captured in the space of one minute when Gooch fouled Touray, shouted at him while he was on the floor and then ran back down the pitch and booted the ball into Humphrey’s face. This is the kind of fully committed football that gets fans fired up.

• McGuane looked fully fit and match sharp, he was running our midfield with help from Ledson. Was Grant being overprotective of him while he returned from injury or was it just bad luck that he didn’t hang on long enough to get a key player back to fitness?

• After an hour, Town should have been further ahead as they were completely dominant in all areas of the pitch. This lack of additional goals is the only (minor) quibble. 

• The red card was a turning point in the game. It was a silly decision of McGuane’s to jump in, the ref was given no choice. Shame because he was good otherwise. Should he have come off earlier? He was on a booking and starting to look leggy after his first start in the league for Town. The counter argument was that he was too influential to our midfield to take off and if he’d have been subbed earlier we may have lost some momentum. Either way, it’s pleasing to actually get to clap eyes on McGuane and to see that he’s clearly a top-quality midfielder at this level.

• Nicholls going down injured and asking for treatment was an example of blatant cheating. Liam Manning was able to gather the outfield players and deliver a team talk about how he wanted to play with ten men. I complain about other teams using such gamesmanship but it’s just as bad when Town do it. You can just sigh and say it’s part of the modern game but when fans are paying money to watch a football game, they don’t want to have their time wasted watching keepers being treated for injuries that don’t exist. 

• The game had a different dynamic after the red card, which is a shame because Town were completely on top. We responded well to this change though and despite having less of the ball, we managed pretty well with whatever Bradford threw at us.

• This might not be something everyone agrees with but I thought the Ref had a good game in a tricky match to officiate. He was calm, fair and let it flow where he could. The last bit is the most important, and there was some leniency shown for spicy challenges for both sides. I’d much rather watch a game flow than constantly be stopping and starting for niggly free kicks. Those times that things spilled over, he was quick to give out a card and move on, which again helped the game to flow.

• One of the most pleasing ways that we played with ten men was that we still had some threat going forward even if we had to mostly defend. Being a man down can lead to the other team laying siege to your box and then it’s a matter of time before a goal is conceded. Instead, Town managed to relieve pressure with tricky runs downfield, which occasionally developed into reasonable half-chances. More importantly, the defence got a breather and chance to reorganise. And, to quote David Threlfall-Sykes when he commentated on our friendlies, we kept them honest by attacking every now and again, meaning Bradford couldn’t throw the kitchen sink at us because we still had a threat on the counter.

• This was a very good Town performance, but it was notable how poor Bradford were too. Partly because we did a good job of not letting them settle but even when we sat deep after the red card, they struggled to put together cohesive attacks and their biggest threat was aimlessly lumping balls into the box and hoping it might drop kindly for them.

• Balker’s slip nearly cost us in the dying moments. Not his first dodgy moment in the game alongside some other times where he was excellent. He looks absolutely class for spells in games but will then do something inexplicable which makes you remember why he’s not playing at a higher level. If he reduces those errors he could become our best defender.

• Nicholls 92nd-minute injury like the boy who cried wolf. I think he actually took a whack but after his earlier shenanigans, it’s easy to see why the officials and Bradford fans were sceptical.

Some more general thoughts about the game

• Bali Mumba had a pretty good game on the whole, but the thing I’ve been most taken by in his first two games is his rightfootedness. I can’t get my head around his best position being left-wingback (according to reports from Plymouth fans) when he’s naturally right footed. Compared to an average footballer, he can use his left foot fairly well but he instinctively turns onto his right foot whenever he has the time to do so. This means when he gets forward he is always looking to cut inside, towards traffic and the left flank doesn’t get used as much as it should. His flexibility was a big talking point when he was signed, so perhaps we’ll see him played in positions more suited to someone who is right-footed but until then, I’m going to continue to whinge about this.

• Liam Manning has done in one game what Grant couldn’t do in his twenty-odd league games, he’s got Town up for a big game and they’ve produced a big performance and secured a victory against a promotion rival. If anything, the red card made the victory even better as we had to show we could defend in those closing stages as well as playing some really nice stuff when we had eleven men.

• Hopefully this game is the start of things to come and we’ll see similar levels of effort and commitment over the rest of this season. We’ve had plenty of false dawns before this though and it could be the same thing again. Lee Grant and Michale Duff both had good preseasons and started their seasons well but then dwindled from there. Even Jon Worthington’s spells as caretaker have started with passionate performances before tailing off. So I’m excited by this first game of Manning’s but won’t be getting too carried away… at least for a few games. 

• I would like to make my final remark about the fans. What an atmosphere! After some pretty toxic moments under Lee Grant, this match showed that the majority of the fans that turn up are desperate to back the team and cheer them on. We’ve just not had enough to cheer lately. Hopefully Liam Manning will be able to repeat the trick for future games, even when it’s not a derby, as it was the kind of front-footed football that we’ve been promised. It’s a lot more fun to watch happen on the pitch rather than just be promised in a media interview but never materialise in reality.  

Apologies this blogpost is a bit scattergun. I’m trying to find a format that will make it easier to keep a regular blogging schedule.