notes – Page 2 – Terrier Spirit – Huddersfield Town FC blog

Sep302024 by Terrier Spirit15 Comments

Huddersfield Town sabotage themselves again – Notes on 2-1 defeat to Reading

Matches

Can you imagine having a haircut and saying it was mostly fine but the hairdresser got distracted with the clippers and shaved a chunk out of your ear? Or being really pleased with how an actor has performed in a play apart from the bit where they left that stage to take a personal phone call? Or enjoyed a meal out that was excellent but for the scabby plaster floating in the soup? Can you see where this is going? Huddersfield Town at Reading were much improved compared to recent outings but it counted for nothing because they still, at key moments, couldn't shake the habit of sabotaging themselves. So I'm not in the mood for handing out participation trophies for players that put in a decent shift but let themselves down at crucial moments. As we've seen so much in recent games,...

Sep272024 by Terrier Spirit10 Comments

A limp response – Notes on Town’s defeat to Blackpool

Matches

Huddersfield Town lost to Blackpool on Tuesday night in a defeat that saw them continue their poor form from Saturday's terrible performance against Northampton. While it wasn't quite as bad a showing as the 3-1 drubbing, the lows weren't quite so low, the fact we came into the game hoping to see a positive reaction after a defeat and were served up another plate of hot rubbish from Town made this defeat feel worse. I asked in the title of my post-Northampton article if that game was just a blip. Losing the next game with a lifeless effort from the Terriers suggests there are bigger problems than just a one-off bad day. This article will rake over the goals of another disappointing home display for the Terriers and speculate about what might happen next for Town. More bad goal...

Sep232024 by Terrier Spirit16 Comments

Was it a blip or part of a trend? Notes on Huddersfield Town’s dismal defeat to Northampton

Matches

When a football team stops the opposition from scoring, it's called a clean sheet but there isn't an opposite phrase for when you let goals in. Something like a befouled sheet would be an appropriate wording to use to describe when a team has sabotaged themselves by letting the ball over the line so easily three times in a game. So, against Northampton, Huddersfield Town soiled their sheets in self-destructive fashion. And then, having made the mess, continued to lie in it rather than getting up and sorting out the problem. Putting aside the scatological metaphor, Town's terrible mistakes for the goals were bad enough but I found the limp response to going behind and our inability to stage a comeback until the dying stages, when Northampton started to sit deeper and invited us on t...

Sep182024 by Terrier Spirit7 Comments

Notes on Huddersfield Town’s commanding 4-0 victory over Bolton Wanderers

Matches

Huddersfield Town won 4-0 away at Bolton on Saturday. While it started out as a cagey and closely matched contest, the game ended up as one-sided as you can imagine and Town rubbed their opponent's noses in it with a display of complete dominance in the second half. A slightly unsettling and perplexing experience for a Town fan. We're used to being on the receiving end of these drubbings, not handing them out. But it was weird in a good way and while Bolton were awful once their confidence had evaporated, Town were as good as their opponent was poor and the scoreline is a fair reflection of both sides overall performances. After a run of three defeats before the international break, this game felt significant in terms of Town's momentum. Now, rather than dwelling on a few recent wobble...

Aug292024 by Terrier Spirit9 Comments

New arrivals soften the blow of bruising defeat to Walsall

Matches, Transfers

I had a much gloomier article planned about Town's miserable Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Walsall, where Matty Pearson's silly red card incident led to Town going 2-0 up then collapsing to a 3-2 defeat. But Town made a double loan swoop from Wolverhampton Wanderers yesterday which addressed some of the biggest issues raised by the game on Tuesday night, so perhaps the tone of this article can now be a bit chirpier. Which is nice. So this is a two-in-one article, where I'm going to look back on the dismal night's work on Tuesday and take a look at the two new players that arrived at Town on Wednesday. Town deserved to be dumped out of the cup Despite being 1-0 up at the time of Matty Pearson's red card, they were second best even before being reduced to ten m...

Aug262024 by Terrier Spirit12 Comments

Raised expectations, spurned chances, transfer needs and winning runs – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s 1-0 win over Shrewsbury

Matches

The stadium looking beautiful in the sunshine Donald Trump, as loathsome as he is, does have a habit of coming out with good sound bites. He promised Republicans once that they would win so much under him that they would get bored of winning. Under Michael Duff, it seems that Town fans have also become bored of winning, so much so that a 1-0 victory is not enough and many fans, myself included, came away from this game feeling like they wanted more. More goals, more entertainment, more razzmatazz. After being whipping boys and serial losers for so long, we might be at risk of becoming the thing that we most disliked in the big-time Charlie opponents that we've faced over the years. The kind of fans that demand thumping victories and expect teams to roll over and let us waltz to victory...

Aug192024 by Terrier Spirit12 Comments

Plenty to admire but also some grumbles as Town make it three wins in a row – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s 2-1 win over Stevenage

Matches

Huddersfield Town won their third game in a row on Saturday and their second consecutive league game, seeing off Stevenage 2-1 in a game that started off one-sided but ended up edgy and uncomfortable for the Terriers. There was still plenty to admire in the performance from Michael Duff's new-look Huddersfield Town but the questions asked by Stevenage of Town in the second half caused some bad habits to slip back in and cause some slight concern despite still picking up the three points. It's perhaps a sign of how Town are making progress that we can now win games but still come away feeling unhappy, when in recent seasons any kind of win was so rare we'd be too delighted to pick up maximum points to quibble about performance issues. And while it's important to savour every victory...

Aug152024 by Terrier Spirit10 Comments

An absolute pleasure to watch – Notes of Huddersfield Town’s 3-0 win over Morecambe

Matches

Huddersfield Town coasted to victory against Morecambe on Tuesday night in one of the most one-sided games of football that you could ever wish to see. Despite making eight changes to the starting lineup from Saturday's victory over Peterborough, the team kept its fluency and played with the same high-pressing and direct attacking style. It reaped rewards within 30 seconds against Morecambe and the game was over as a contest from that point onwards. If it ever really was one. Not that I'm complaining though, after years of being rubbish, I'm not in a hurry to start whining that Town are winning games too easily! Like with Peterborough at the weekend, the biggest issue with this game was that the scoreline didn't tell the full story. While 3-0 is an emphatic victory in anyone's book...

Aug112024 by Terrier Spirit23 Comments

A superb start – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s 2-0 win over Peterborough United

Matches

Huddersfield Town got off to the best possible start to life in League One with a 2-0 away win at Peterborough yesterday evening. While Town didn't have it all their way, they were worthy winners and did a particularly impressive job of seeing out the game in the second half and will perhaps wish the scoreline was more emphatic after creating several good chances to extend the lead further but not applying the finishing touch. The first game of the season always has too much importance applied to it, because football fans spend so long anticipating it but even allowing for that, the omens for Town’s upcoming season were good if this game can be used as a barometer. While Peterborough showed some impressive moments, Town weathered the storm and showed some excellent pressing play and us...

Aug52024 by Terrier Spirit12 Comments

Selection shows recruitment needs, putting Blades to the sword, new boys shine – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s friendly draw against Sheffield United

Matches

The stadium looking very smart after it's summer refurb (all the home fans were in the Riverside and away fans in the South Stand - I promise it wasn't empty!) Huddersfield Town completed their preseason fixtures with a decent 1-1 draw against Sheffield United on Friday night. The first half was impressive and the second half was more of a mixed bag but overall it was a good showing against a team that were in the Premier League last season and will most likely compete at the top end of the Championship in the season to come. While preseason is often a poor predictor of how a new season is going to pan out, this final game caps off an impressive start to Michael Duff's first few weeks in charge at Town and he seems to be doing everything right so far. The first proper test wil...