notes – Page 9 – Terrier Spirit – Huddersfield Town FC blog

May42021 by Terrier Spirit15 Comments

Baffling formations, repeating mistakes, dissecting their goal, limping over the line and thinking about summer – Notes on Town’s 1-1 draw with Coventry

Matches, Opinion

It's a couple of days since Town's 1-1 draw with Coventry and it's already a struggle to remember anything of great consequence from the game. Despite this season being exceptional for off the pitch reasons, we had to sit through another unexceptional Town performance where a point was a little bit fortunate. All the usual problems reared their head during the game and it was only results elsewhere that guaranteed Town's safety. In previous seasons beating the drop had been something to celebrate but this time it's slightly embarrassing as it doesn't feel like we deserve to survive after a woeful 2021. Playing three or four different formations at once Could you confidently say what the formation was for Town on Saturday? I was preoccupied by this question for long sp...

Apr252021 by Terrier Spirit30 Comments

Repeating mistakes, rotten attitudes, unfit players and legitimate doubts about the head coach – Notes on Town’s humiliating defeat to Blackburn

Matches

Huddersfield Town fell to another humiliating defeat yesterday, this time to Blackburn. While 5-2 might not look as bad as the 7-0 battering we received from Norwich, in many ways this game was worse. The bulk of Norwich's goals came from excellent play but yesterday we were the architects of our downfall, as we made mistake after mistake and got the tactics completely wrong. Blackburn were good but we gave them a very easy afternoon's work. Weirdly, the other results mean Town are now almost certainly safe barring a very unlikely sequence of results. Few fans are in celebratory mood though as another dysfunctional performance means there are genuine questions to be asked about the competence of the Head Coach and the grand plan that we brought in last season as the justification...

Apr192021 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

Rebooting the game with dreary possession, taking chances, sloppy errors and survival maths – Notes on Town’s 2-0 victory over Forest

Matches

Town's win over Nottingham Forest settled many Town fans' nerves at the weekend. It doesn't guarantee safety but it's a huge stride towards it. There were good things and bad things in the match but ultimately, Town took their chances and Forest didn't, and that was the main difference between two fairly poor sides. Here are a few of my thoughts on the match. We could have been out of the game in the first 20 minutes Town were really bad in the opening stages of this game. We played like we were half asleep for twenty minutes and could easily have conceded two or three goals purely from silly mistakes at the back. I'm not completely sure what the problem was. I think nerves came into it, as the players looked scared and that made many play with...

Apr72021 by Terrier Spirit21 Comments

A rant about Huddersfield Town’s 7-0 humiliation against Norwich

Matches

Huddersfield Town were humiliated by Norwich last night in a 7-0 drubbing which was every bit as bad for Town as the scoreline suggests. The heaviest defeat Town have suffered since the infamous 10-1 game against Man City was painful to watch. In a season of ups and downs this performance revealed just how far away from the required standard Town currently are. While I'm sure most fans won't want to spend too much time thinking about last night's sustained and complete annihilation of Town's defence, here are a few of my thoughts on the game. Credit to Norwich Even through my blue and white tinted specs it was impossible to ignore that Norwich played excellently. As much as we allowed them the space, they exploited it ruthlessly with their dynamic movement an...

Mar202021 by Terrier Spirit16 Comments

Finger pointing, Sarr’s redemption, The Quaner effect and picking over the remains – Notes on Town’s draw with Sheffield Wednesday

Matches

The dull draw with Sheffield Wednesday is most likely already only a vague memory for most Town fans and one they aren't likely to want to revisit. So it barely seems worth bothering publishing this very late write up but it's done so I thought I might as well put it out. With no Town game to watch today you can at least relive some of the tedium from our midweek game. If you think this article seems like a deliberate attempt to alienate my readers you may be right but it's nothing compared to the series of Mick Wadsworth articles I've currently planning on putting together during the international break. (Not a joke!) Until then, here are my notes on the draw with Sheffield Wednesday… One of *those* games This was a poor game played out by two poor teams and it's unlikely...

Mar152021 by Terrier Spirit8 Comments

5 final thoughts on Huddersfield Town’s 1-0 win over QPR

Matches

Huddersfield Town won their first away game in 5 months on Saturday, when they beat QPR 1-0. It was a good all-round team performance and relied on grit and organisation more than attacking flair to get the result over the line. Before our thoughts turn to Wednesday's crucial clash with Sheffield Wednesday, here are some of my final thoughts about last Saturday's game. A competent 1-0 win was better for confidence than a big win Keeping a clean sheet again and finally managing to successfully defend a narrow lead will have done wonders for our confidence. Town haven't won many games 1-0 this season, mostly because we have tended to try to score more after going ahead and that has also led to conceding more too. A comfortable victory would have been nice but ...

Feb282021 by Terrier Spirit17 Comments

Corberán’s mistakes, fragile confidence, relegation odds and lumping it up to the big man – Notes on Town’s defeat to PNE

Matches

Town's wretched 2021 continued with another abject game, where defeat was embraced like a dear friend by a team. We don't have a losing habit, it's gone past a that now and into an addiction. The only possible explanation for such consistently disappointing results is a compulsion deep within the players and coaches to throw away games that they're capable of winning. I'm genuinely shocked that the optimism I felt after Town's resounding win against Swansea was only last week. After two defeats and two awful second-half performances it's now clear last weekend's win was a false dawn and dark times are still ahead to Town fans. The good start In nearly every game of Town's terrible run in 2021 there have been pockets where Town have played well. Usually it comes ...

Feb252021 by Terrier Spirit17 Comments

Carlos outfoxed, our vampire GK, low-block struggles & how to turn it around – Notes on HTAFC’s defeat to Derby

Matches

After the otherworldliness of the victory over Swansea, Town came back down to Earth with a bump against Derby. Just over 48 hours after a victory that had fans daring to dream this season could have a boring, midtable finish, Town were back to all the bad habits that had left them drifting down the table and towards the drop zone. If someone wanted to know what went wrong for Town this season they could watch this game to see just about every issue that's blighted Town’s play with predictable regularity. Throwing away a lead is the only square that went unmarked in Huddersfield Town 2021 Bingo. All the other favourites were there: silly mistakes at the back, tepid build up play, spurned chances, being out muscled at set pieces, persisting with failing tactics and injuries to key play...

Feb172021 by Terrier Spirit12 Comments

A good start, the capitulation, young guns & a death spiral – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s 2-1 defeat to Middlesbrough

Matches

Huddersfield Town lost again last night to extend their 2021 winless run to nine games. Despite taking an early lead Town capitulated and Middlesbrough deserved to win despite a late fightback from Town, led by substitutes Rowe and Phillips. A good start Town flew out of the blocks and completely dominated Middlesbrough in the opening exchanges. We repeatedly carved them open with intense and fluent passing and moving in the final third. Pritchard, Holmes and Bacuna interchanged and popped up all over the places making it hard for them to track the threat. O'Brien bombed down the sides and found space to exploit. The end of this period of dominance came when Mbenza scored a lovely free kick. It seemed like going ahead destroyed our confidence and energy which ga...

Jan182021 by Terrier Spirit9 Comments

The mistake, the assault, tedious tactics, murderball, commentary and transfer rumours – Notes on Watford away

Matches, Opinion

Huddersfield Town were beaten 2-0 by Watford on Saturday in a game that turned on a silly mistake by Ryan Schofield. The opener came at an unfortunate moment in the game and gave Town a mountain to climb against a Watford team full of quality players. It’s one of those games that you can find negatives or positives, depending on your disposition. Some fans will despair at Town’s lack of attacking threat and inability to put pressure on the Watford goal. Other fans, the dangerously optimistic ones, would point to how Town mostly held their own against one of the league's strongest teams despite having to field a team full of untested backup players. The mistake This was a game that was light on incident or drama, so the first thing to talk about is Schofield’s nightmare moment w...