Huddersfield Town handed hurried chance to 'put it right' after taking things for granted
Huddersfield Town head coach Michael Duff is looking to see a “better performance” from his side against Blackpool tomorrow evening as they look to bounce back from their disappointing defeat to Northampton Town.
The Terriers were beaten 3-1 at home to the Cobblers on Saturday, but have a quick turnaround to their next fixture, as they host the Seasiders at the John Smith’s Stadium.
Having shown his side where they went wrong on Saturday, Duff is hoping to see an improvement in Town’s display this evening.
“Anything that could’ve gone wrong did go wrong. We turned down too many opportunities to play forward, didn’t run hard enough, didn’t come out of any duels [with the ball], gave poor goals away, missed a penalty,” the head coach said.
“Lots of things didn’t go right, so with the game coming so quickly, it’s an opportunity to put it right, an opportunity to try and put in a better performance. You’re not in control of the result, but we definitely need to put a better performance in. It’s the same [process] as what you try and do after the Bolton game (a 4-0 win). You watch it back, you take the good bits, the bad bits, where we can improve, and deliver that this morning, which we have done.
“I’ve never been a ranter and a raver. It’s not the way I believe you want to work. I’ve played through that era, where managers would just tell you you were rubbish, and then tell you you were rubbish again, without actually giving you a solution and trying to help.
“We’ve shown them the pictures of when we’re turning balls down to play down the sides more, and we’ve shown the second goal. It’s a perfect example of their players running past our players, it can’t happen. That’s what happens in football, if you take things for granted or you don’t run, you don’t win.”
Saturday’s defeat leaves Town sitting fifth in the League One table, on 12 points from six matches played. Tonight’s opponents are 13th in the table, on eight points from six games. The Seasiders have registered 2-1 victories against Exeter City and Charlton Athletic since appointing former Terriers’ boss Steve Bruce as head coach, and Duff highlighted the danger that tonight’s opponents could pose in attack.
“They’re one of the bigger teams in the league, one of the fancied teams. Obviously an unbelievable manager, the level that he’s managed at,” Town’s boss added.
“I think they’re top of the expected goals league, so they’ve created more chances and better chances than anyone else in the league, so that tells you they’re a threat. They’ve won the last two league games under Steve, so we’ll have to be much better than what we were. You’ve got to park that up now. It’s another game, another opportunity, and hopefully we can get a good performance and result.”
Duff confirmed that the Terriers have a “clean bill of health” on the injury front heading into the game, aside from sidelined trio Radinio Balker, Rhys Healey and Chris Maxwell.