League One promotion hopefuls Huddersfield Town wary of 'dangerous' Reading threat
Huddersfield Town boss Michael Duff has described Reading as a “dangerous opponent” ahead of tomorrow lunchtime's encounter. The Terriers take on the Royals at the Select Car Leasing Stadium on Saturday, kick-off 12.30pm.
Ruben Selles’ side sit 17th in the League One table, on seven points from six matches played, and head into this afternoon’s clash off the back of a 5-2 defeat at Bolton Wanderers last weekend.
Home supporters are planning to stage a red card protest against the club’s owner Dai Yongge during tomorrow's contest following Rob Couhig’s collapsed takeover attempt, but Duff’s focus is on preparing his side for a tough encounter on the field.
“From our point of view, we can’t control it. We’ve got to prepare like the game’s going to go on, we’ve got to prepare for the best version of Reading,” Duff said. “A really young team, they obviously use it to galvanise them as a squad (the off-field uncertainty), because they’re not in control of what’s going on, so sometimes it can bring them together with that sort of adversity.
“They’re a dangerous team, because they’re such a young team. I know they got heavily beat last week, but some of their results have been really good. They go to Birmingham, they should probably win the game at Birmingham, so they’re a dangerous opponent.
“Ultimately, we need to deliver a better performance clearly than what we have done in the last two home games.”
The Terriers head into the clash sitting fifth in the League One table, on 12 points from seven matches played, having registered back-to-back home defeats to Blackpool and Northampton Town over the past week.
With his side aiming to be promoted back to the Championship at the first attempt, Duff insists he is looking no further than trying to get back to winning ways this weekend.
“I don’t like talking about where we’re going to end up, because you’ll finish where you deserve to finish,” said the head coach. “The players are under no illusions where we want to finish this year, but talk’s cheap. We’ve got to play everybody twice.
“At the start, it’s been up and down, there’s no getting away from it, but we’ve won four and lost [three]. If we carry that form on for 46 games, you’ll be in and around it, whilst hopefully we’ll improve as the season goes on the more time we spend together.
“I’ll just be working for the next game against Reading, and plan from there. I don’t like making big statements, ‘we’re going to do this and that’, everyone knows what our focus is, we said it at the start of the season.
“Now we’re in the season, it’s every game, thick and fast, try and win the next half. Don’t look too far ahead.
“I said it after the Bolton game, people get ahead of themselves straight away – ‘right, you’ll win the next two games’, and you don’t, and you just leave yourself disappointed. Live in the moment.
“We had a brilliant opportunity and we didn’t take it, so how do we react more positively? That’s what we’ve got to focus on.”