notes – Page 6 – Terrier Spirit – Huddersfield Town FC blog

Dec202022 by Terrier Spirit7 Comments

Pretendance, Watford’s weird tactics, bleak future, gulf in quality – Notes on Town’s loss to the Hornets

Matches

There have been a few days for the dust to settle on Saturday’s defeat to Watford and it still hurts. Even though it was one of the division’s better teams and Town played relatively well in patches, we still looked completely toothless and struggled to lay a glove on our opponent. The post-match reaction that I’ve seen makes me think that other fans may have taken the defeat harder than me but it was still a bitter pill to swallow. With off the pitch issues looking almost as bleak as the results on the pitch, it’s not a great time to be a Town fan. But things can turn around quickly in football (it’s only seven months since we were two denied VAR decisions from a place in the Premier League). Here are a few of my thoughts on Saturday’s game. A positive start sq...

Nov142022 by Terrier Spirit12 Comments

Passed to death, revealing xG stats, the table is weird and getting the World Cup break right – notes on Huddersfield Town’s draw with Swansea

Matches

Wins are always happy occasions, even if you have to win ugly, it’s always nice to take three points. Defeats are never nice, even if you play well and lose valiantly, you’ve still tasted failure and that’s hard to take. Draws are awkward though as you have to make up a story to go along with the point that you take away from the game. So some Town fans will have come away from the game against Swansea feeling happy about a battling performance where our injury ravaged side took a point from one of the league’s better teams and “on another day” (Fotheringham’s favourite post-match line) we could have taken all three. But other Town fans will have walked out of the stadium feeling frustrated at our lack of ambition and cutting edge in the final third, bemoaning how readily we allowed t...

Nov92022 by Terrier Spirit12 Comments

The Josh Ruffels finishing school, understudies shine, QPR poor, goal dissected – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s first away win of the season

Matches

When Danny Ward spurned a presentable chance in the opening seconds of last night’s game and then QPR went straight up the other end and scored the opening goal it felt like it was going to be a long night for Town. And then it suddenly wasn’t. The script of recent weeks was torn up and instead of Town playing well but ultimately losing, they got their noses in front and then hung on until the final whistle. It wasn’t always pretty but Town deserved the three points for showing the character and nerve to dig in and resist relentless pressure from QPR. The second half was hard to watch from a Town perspective as we went long periods without meaningful possession but we stuck to our task and came away with three vital points and a renewed sense of hope. Here are a few of my thoughts o...

Nov62022 by Terrier Spirit8 Comments

Trying to find positives, goal drought, Fotheringham’s tunnel exit, mounting pressure and looking ahead – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s defeat to Blackburn

Matches

Huddersfield Town lost 1-0 to Blackburn yesterday afternoon in a game that was frustratingly similar to their recent outings, where they actually played pretty well for long spells of the game but a lack of cutting edge up front and a momentary lapse at the back meant they left Ewood Park empty handed. There’s no point talking about what Town deserved or not from this game because you only win games by scoring goals and Town’s players are currently showing a complete inability to get the ball into the back of the net and it’s causing us a great deal of pain at the moment and could ultimately cost us our place in the Championship. But yet, we went away from home with a weakened team and went toe-to-toe with one of the division’s best teams for 90 minutes and looked pretty...

Nov32022 by Terrier Spirit10 Comments

A whole season in 90 minutes, Mackem’s quality, injury woes, Town’s youth shines, slow transitions, bleak future – Notes on defeat to Sunderland

Matches

Huddersfield Town stay stuck at the bottom of the table after defeat to Sunderland last night. Injuries and suspension forced them to field a weakened team and despite battling valiantly in horrendous conditions, they were second best against a Sunderland side that weren’t a great deal better than Town but possessed just enough quality to finish us off. More worrying still, after losing Ollie Turton to long-term injury and Tom Lees to injury before this game, we also saw Yuta Nakayama and Ben Jackson both stretchered off, both looking distraught. Hopefully the prognosis will be positive once they get properly checked over but neither injury looks good, which is particularly heartbreaking for Nakayama with the World Cup just around the corner. Here are a few more of my thoughts...

Nov12022 by Terrier Spirit2 Comments

The Fotheringham Way, shooting boots, towel drama, making Millwall bad & table climbing – notes on Town’s win over Millwall

Matches

Huddersfield Town beat Millwall on Saturday and given it was such a good result for the Terriers, I’m going to write another article to dig into what went on. While there will be better performances for Town this season, there most likely won't be one that comes as more of a surprise as we turned a spell of indifferent form into a decent performance that warranted a win against a team that had won their last four games. The next challenge is for Town to build on their hard-fought draw at Middlesbrough and impressive win against Millwall and turn it into a proper run of good form. If they can do that then they may well pull themselves clear of the relegation zone before the World Cup break comes in a few weeks' time. That would be a lovely pre-Christmas present for fans. But before we get ...

Oct232022 by Terrier Spirit10 Comments

Bore draw talking points, Boro as bad as Town, a good point, pressure on Fotheringham – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s draw with Middlesbrough

Matches

Basketball is a game that is spoiled because there are too many points scored. One team attacks and scores, the other team attacks and scores, then one might miss, then the other scores, over and over. It’s too easy to get the ball in the hoop and scoring isn’t important enough to be meaningful. That’s why football, in my opinion, is more enjoyable to watch, there are far fewer scoring opportunities so goals are far more important and enjoyable when they do get scored. But the downside is that you get occasional games where no goals are scored - like when Town played Middlesbrough yesterday. In fact, if you were going to use this game as an advert for the sport of football you would do little to tempt any neutral into ever watching the sport ever again. It was a dire game which will no...

Oct62022 by Terrier Spirit15 Comments

Nathan Jones: angry toddler, Mbete’s hattrick, B-Team talent, Sorba’s redemption, Fotheringham’s enthusiasm – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s draw with Luton

Matches

Huddersfield Town earned their first away point of the season on Tuesday night when they drew 3-3 with Luton. Having led the game twice, you could argue this was a lost opportunity for an away win but the stats from the game and the trickiness of the opponent make it hard to see this as anything but a well-earned point on the road. Mark Fotheringham is in the very early days of his time at the club but there are already glimmers of the ideas he wants to instill in his players and it looks encouraging. It was far from a perfect performance but Town did at least look to battle and the majority of the players that were given a chance made the step up, with one notable exception. Here are some of my thoughts on the game. Mbete’s unfortunate hattrick Mbete is only 19 years old and ...

Oct32022 by Terrier Spirit9 Comments

Soft goals, Sorba’s cupped ear, Russell’s aimless wandering, a collective failure and nursing fragile confidence – notes on a bruising defeat to Reading

Matches

Mark Fotheringham became the eighth consecutive permanent new Town boss to lose their first game in charge when he lost 3-1 to Reading on Saturday. It was an abject performance from the Terriers which highlighted many of the issues that have plagued the team since the start of the season. Despite some strangely upbeat post match comments, Mark Fotheringham must be deeply concerned about some of the things he saw on Saturday as Reading barely had to get out of second gear to brush aside a Town team that looked completely inept at times. Here are some of my thoughts on the game in more detail… Three soft goal give Reading an easy afternoon's work The first goal Town conceded was the most forgivable, with Rudoni being out jumped on a corner but then again, it wasn't a clever p...

Sep182022 by Terrier Spirit9 Comments

Rhodes’ goal, Camara’s graft, Nicholls’ save, Thomas’ miss, Pelach’s passion – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s win over Cardiff

Matches

Huddersfield Town won their second game of the season yesterday in a narrow, scrappy game against Cardiff. It was a hard-fought game where neither team played amazing football but Town showed a bit of grit and determination that has been sorely lacking in recent weeks and managed to hang on to their narrow lead, mostly thanks to a Lee Nicholls penalty save in the first half and, admittedly, a fairly poor Cardiff team. Here are a few of my thoughts on the game which seem to centre around a few key figures from Town’s squad yesterday… Jordan Rhodes and the goal It’s not been easy for Jordan Rhodes in his second spell at Town. He signed while carrying a back injury and by the time he was fully fit Danny Ward was in excellent form and Rhodes was limited to cameo’s from the bench. To ...