notes – Page 4 – Terrier Spirit – Huddersfield Town FC blog

Sep222023 by Terrier Spirit3 Comments

Shuffling the pack, was it fair?, testing the depth, Warnock Way suggestion, and more – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s draw with Stoke

Matches

Huddersfield Town were forced to share the spoils with Stoke on Wednesday night in Neil Warnock's final game as Huddersfield Town manager. (it was actually his third "final" game but this time he really means it!) In this article I'll talk about how I think a draw was probably just about fair, pay some backhanded compliments to Stoke, consider how the fringe players fared when given a chance in this game, reflect for a moment on Warnock and Jepson's time at Town through misty eyes and then look ahead to what's coming next now we know Darren Moore is taking over… Draw a fair result At half time I would have snatched your hand off if you offered me a draw, as Stoke had bossed the game and could easily have been ahead by a couple of goals by that stage. But a decent set piece goal h...

Aug312023 by Terrier Spirit8 Comments

Boo-boys, bad goals, Wagner tactics, man marking exploited, depth of a puddle and effort concerns – notes on Huddersfield Town’s defeat to Norwich

Matches

Huddersfield Town were beaten 4-0 by Norwich on Saturday in a game which saw Town repeatedly scupper their chances of success by conceding soft goals to a team that didn't need any extra help in getting the better of the Terriers. As the scoreline suggests, Norwich were the better team on the day by a distance. The scoreline is perhaps more emphatic than the balance of play might have suggested but then again, if you fail to take your chances and your opponent is clinical with theirs, these are the kind of scorelines you end up with. Here are some of my thoughts on the game. (Apologies it's taken a while to get them out to you.) Bad goals I won’t go into forensic detail of each goal, but they each had elements of self-sabotage to them. The opener was particularly painful to watch...

Aug222023 by Terrier Spirit4 Comments

A meandering ramble about Huddersfield Town’s 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough

Matches

Huddersfield Town came away from their trip to Teesside last weekend with a point, which is two fewer than they might have had if they'd have taken all their chances and defended a bit better but is a point more than they should have had, given the golden chance Boro spurned in the dying minutes of the game. If you're sensitive to footballing clichés, you may want to reach for the sick bag now as this game was "a good advert for the Championship" as both sides “went at it hammer and tongs” and pushed for the win. The players “left it all out on the pitch”, “gave 110%”, and in a “game of two halves”, “football was the winner”. While it was a broadly positive away trip for Town, there were some obvious issues that still persist and a few new ones that popped up too. On the other hand,...

Aug162023 by Terrier Spirit4 Comments

Diarra’s influence, happy in defeat?, front foot Terriers, Leicester not at their best, signings please! – notes on Huddersfield Town’s defeat to Leicester

Matches

Huddersfield Town lost to Leicester at the weekend but despite not picking up any points, it was a decent performance from the Terriers and most fans came away happy (some are never happy!). The slight concern is that we had a few chances that we failed to take and the goal we conceded was slightly soft, as it’s one Nicholls probably shouldn’t have let through his legs. But after being written off before the game, Town got up in Leicester’s face and didn’t allow them to settle. Here are my thoughts on the game… A good defeat? How good can a defeat really be? Neil Warnock said after the game that any fans that weren’t happy after that game needed their heads checking. I can see his point too. It was a really entertaining match, with lots of action at both ends of the p...

Aug72023 by Terrier Spirit2 Comments

Avoidable goals, missed opportunities, concerns: old & new, and a few positives if you looked hard enough – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s defeat to Plymouth

Matches

It was a disappointing start to the season for Huddersfield Town, with them making the long trip down to Plymouth and coming away with no points after conceding three sloppy goals. There were a mixture of positives and negatives to take away from the game and it’s difficult at this early stage of the season to know how concerned fans should be by this result. Because there are no other recent competitive games to give context to the result, the first game of the season always has an outsized importance to fans. So a defeat like this was always going to be hard to swallow but rather than running around like the sky is falling in, I’ll try and take a more measured reaction. I’ll wait at least two more games before I start acting like the sky is falling in. All three ...

Jul232023 by Terrier Spirit8 Comments

Glorious goals, captain Sorba, same old problems, Rhodes spite, special teams subs – Notes on the Stockport friendly

Matches

Huddersfield Town traveled to Stockport yesterday for a friendly and came away with a 4-0 victory. While it’s important not to get too carried away with preseason games, particularly when they’re against a team from further down the divisions, there were some positive signs on display alongside the important fitness test for the Terriers. The game was played at a fairly good tempo for a friendly game, I don’t think Neil Warnock would allow any team of his to drop their standards for even a meaningless game like this. While it wasn’t anything like a proper league game, there were some full-blooded tackles and there weren't those horrible lulls you sometimes get in friendlies, where the players almost stand on the ball to get their breath back. Both teams went for it and had a go. And w...

Apr162023 by Terrier Spirit6 Comments

Both teams too timid, flight regrets, spark missing, lack of depth – notes on Huddersfield Town’s defeat to Swansea

Matches

Huddersfield Town fell to a 1-0 defeat to Swansea yesterday, in a game where they saw little of the ball but managed to mostly frustrate our opponents and the game’s only goal was only conceded thanks to an unkind deflection that took it away from Vaclik. It sounds like sour grapes to whinge about losing a game where your team only had 25% possession but this was Town’s first defeat in six games and they’ve had similar stats in most of those games too. I don’t think Town’s game plan was to blame for their defeat in this game, it was the execution of it that fell short, as they struggled to cause Swansea enough problems despite having opportunities. Thankfully, results elsewhere were kind to Town and we’re still above the relegation zone but our position is precarious. With four ga...

Apr122023 by Terrier Spirit5 Comments

Town break a record, riding our luck, Vaclik saves & Pearson marks drinks break – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s draw with Blackburn

Matches

Huddersfield Town drew 2-2 with Blackburn Rovers on Easter Monday and it was either two points thrown away after holding a 2-0 lead at half time or a valuable point gained after being completely outplayed for the entirety of the 90 minutes, depending on your perspective. While the 90th-minute equaliser from Blackburn was a sickener at the time, I’ve since reflected that it’s a decent outcome for Town and the point could be very valuable in the fight for survival. I’ll cover some of my thoughts on the game in this blogpost. Record breaking Terriers! The nerds at Opta have confirmed that no Championship team have completed fewer passes since they started counting them on their fingers and toes back in 2013. We registered just 63 successful passes over the course of the 90 minut...

Apr92023 by Terrier Spirit5 Comments

Watford = talent without passion, Rudoni and Harrat goals, counterattacking masterclass, Warnock tribute – Notes on Watford away

Matches

During Mark Fotheringham’s time as Town manager he often talked about how “on another day” things would have gone differently. Unfortunately for him, those days never seemed to come. However, under Neil Warnock, we seem to be having quite a few of those days, where things go our way. It happened again for Town against Watford, where we went behind but then scored three goals and won the game. It isn’t good luck that’s led to Town recent upturn in results, it’s, as Neil Warnock pointed out to the club’s media team, having a good manager. We’ve now got a boss that knows how to use the players we have in such a way that gives us a chance of getting results like these. Rather than bemoaning our bad luck, we’re actually making our opponents curse their luck instead. It’s not always pretty, ...

Feb62023 by Terrier Spirit12 Comments

Fotheringham gets it wrong, QPR bad, the triple sub lift and old hands falter – notes on Huddersfield Town’s draw with QPR

Matches

Huddersfield Town drew with QPR on Saturday in a game which saw Town look absolutely abysmal in the first half but actually finished the game on the front foot and were pushing for the victory. It will depend on your perspective on Town (and maybe life in general) whether there was enough to satisfy you in Town's good moments to offset how bad they were at their worst in this game. We really stank when we were bad but once Knockaert came on in the closing stages we suddenly looked like we could attack with purpose and creativity. Judging from the boos at the end of the game, many fans remain unconvinced but I think there was enough to encourage the optimistic Town fan. Team selection and tactics all wrong I think a lot of Town's difficulties in the first half of this ...