The Wonder of Lee

Hello to you all on a very much more upbeat Terrier blog than the previous one. The reason for this? We're currently celebrating a clean sheet coupled with 3 points, and invaluable points gained on Sheffield United. The blog today will look back on the game against Hartlepool, but will also be focusing on the run-in.

Hartlepool


This was a hugely important game following a week when we imploded in two consecutive away games, the stakes were high and the team were looking to bounce back. However straight forward a home tie may have looked against Hartlepool it was clear that there was a high level of trepidation amongst Town fans. Large numbers of fans had swarmed to social networking sites and DATM to air their discontent at the manager and the team, and Hartlepool was that chance to respond.
The team could easily have displayed that same mental fragility against the monkey hangers on Tuesday night and folded under the pressure, but this time they stood up to the task. Hartlepool approached the game in much the way that many visiting teams at the Galpharm do, with their eye on a point or a tight smash and grab victory. Football under these circumstances can be particularly tough, as we know all too well. The match in itself was fairly uninspiring, there were few chances for Hartlepool and occasional forays into the Town penalty area. The match facts themselves tell a story, 60% possesion, 7 more shots than the opposition, and hilariously Alan Lee topped the fouling charts after just over half an hours play. As the manager and players have said following the game, promotion is the most important thing, how we play isn't. I for one wouldn't care one bit if we won every game from now until the end of the season 1-0 and went up, now isn't the time for entertainers it's a time for bottle, determination and results.
It was brilliant to see the team respond positively following the disappointing week we had just endured, the clean sheet was perhaps most pleasing considering we had shipped 5 goals in 2 away games. Even more impressive was the goal, a fantastic raking ball played over the top by Joey Gudjonsson, immaculate control off the chest by Alan Lee and a pinpoint finish. Remarkable! The ball by Gudjonsson highlights to me his importance to the team, his creativity is in my opinion much greater than anything on offer from the other central midfielders. The control and finish by Alan Lee was fantastic and somewhat shocking, for some time now I have viewed Alan Lee as a player devoid of any technique and simply a big lad that tries hard. With this goal he showed me and others who see him as a figure of derision that he is actually a competent footballer, who needs Jordan ey!?
The game seemed to last an eternity, and although I didn't think so at the time those five minutes at the end of the game may have been a blessing in disguise. That we had to face 5 minutes of stoppage times and hold onto a slender lead was a frightful experience, and it no doubt played on the minds of the Town players. However we held on for the victory and hopefully the players have banished that monkey on their backs, and they may be able to hold onto leads between now and the end of the season.
So the game finished 1-0 to Town and we kept a clean sheet, just the tonic and hopefully we can kick on now starting with Rochdale at home. It's clear that drawing too many games at home in the past has been a problem for us, and if we can win two in quick succession then we may have well turned a corner.
As the players left the pitch on Tuesday night the glorious news of Sheffield Uniteds demise at the Bescot was reaching us, making our result even more important. We're now within two points of the blades with 12 games to go, which isn't an unattainable gap. Besides that Charlton lost, and though it is highly improbable there is still a slight chance that we could catch them, but it is slight. So onto Rochdale at home, a game which was marred by the injury of Anthony Pilkington last season, but hopefully this season it will be remembered solely for a Town victory.

The run-in


At the moment the top of league 1 is a very congested place, barring perhaps Charlton Athletic who have forged a gap at the summit. The table as it stands is below;

No movement1	Charlton	35	39	78
No movement2	Sheff Utd	34	27	65
No movement3	Sheff Wed	35	17	64
No movement4	Huddersfield	34	30	63
No movement5	MK Dons	34	26	59

The gap between us and Charlton is 15 points now and our ambitions of top-spot seem out of reach, which is also true of the chairmans ambition of one hundred points which is now mathematically impossible, although I'd be happy with 99! The threat at the moment for the second spot is clearly coming from the two Sheffield clubs, I think it may just be out of reach for MK Dons, as they would be relying on a huge implosion from the three clubs directly above them. Below are the run-ins for us, Sheffield United and Wednesday;
Huddersfield Town

Sat 10	15:00	H	Rochdale	FL1
Sat 17	15:00	A	Colchester	FL1
Tue 20	19:45	A	Chesterfield	FL1
Sat 24	15:00	H	Charlton	FL1
Sat 31	15:00	A	Carlisle	FL1
April
Tue 3	19:45	A	Leyton Orient	FL1
Sat 7	12:30	H	Sheffield Wed	FL1
Mon 9	15:00	A	Bournemouth	FL1
Sat 14	15:00	A	Preston	FL1
Sat 21	15:00	H	Scunthorpe	FL1
Sat 28	15:00	A	Walsall	FL1
May
Sat 5	15:00	H	Yeovil Town	FL1

Sheffield United

Sat 10	15:00	A	Brentford	FL1
Tue 13	19:45	A	Colchester	FL1
Sat 17	15:00	H	Tranmere	FL1
Tue 20	19:45	A	Notts County	FL1
Wed 28	19:45	H	Chesterfield	FL1
Sat 31	15:00	A	Hartlepool	FL1
April
Sat 7	15:00	H	Bournemouth	FL1
Tue 10	19:45	A	Rochdale	FL1
Sat 14	15:00	H	Leyton Orient	FL1
Sat 21	15:00	A	MK Dons	FL1
Sat 28	15:00	H	Stevenage	FL1
May
Sat 5	15:00	A	Exeter City	FL1

Sheffield Wednesday

Sat 10	15:00	H	Bournemouth	FL1
Sat 17	15:00	A	Notts County	FL1
Tue 20	19:45	H	Walsall	FL1
Sat 24	15:00	A	Leyton Orient	FL1
Sat 31	12:45	H	Preston	FL1
April
Sat 7	12:30	A	Huddersfield	FL1
Mon 9	12:45	H	Oldham	FL1
Sat 14	15:00	A	Colchester	FL1
Sat 21	15:00	H	Carlisle	FL1
Sat 28	15:00	A	Brentford	FL1
May
Sat 5	15:00	H	Wycombe	FL1

Out of all of the run-ins I think ours looks the toughest, we have three very difficult home games to contend with ( Charlton, Wednesday and Scunthorpe), further to that we have extremely difficult away games to contend with at the likes of Preston, Bournemouth and Leyton Orient. The game against Sheffield Wednesday at home will undoubtedly be a big game in the promotion race, however how we fair overall in April will perhaps decide whether we finish 2nd or not. April could prove to be a tricky month for the other two clubs as well, but if we can emerge at the end of the month undefeated then it will certainly give us an edge.
Looking at the fixtures for us and the Sheffield clubs does not fill me with confidence, but I'm of the opinion that we haven't seen the best of this Town team yet, and if they can realise their potential in the next 12 games then we will be celebrating promotion on May 5th.
Believe





Tables and fixtures courtesy of;
http://www.swfc.co.uk/page/Fixtures/0,,10304,00.html
http://www.htafc.com/page/Fixtures/0,,10312,00.html
http://www.sufc.co.uk/page/Fixtures/0,,10418,00.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/league-one



Thanks to Callum Wrigglesworth for match report contribution

3-0 and we ****** it up.....

Good morning my fellow Huddersfield Town fans, and what a brilliant Monday morning it is after the thrilling weekend of football, Sheffield United lost at home and we gained a point on them after a battling performance at Gigg Lane, oh wait...

You see that's the problem, had anyone said to you before Saturday that we'd get a point at Bury and move a point closer to Sheffield United, then most of you would be fairly happy, right? Well no, none of us are happy, not even slightly happy, because yet again this team of ours have squandered a lead and this time it was a 3 goal lead. It's very difficult for us to try and make sense of what happened on Saturday, and for me to do so I'm going to break this down into sections, so I don't go off on a tangent. So here it goes;

FIRST HALF

Over 200 walkers descended on Gigg Lane from Huddersfield, a truly epic achievement to be part of an away crowd of 3,270, outnumbering the home fans by around 500. A good sign I thought, the boys to be roared on by a vociferous away following and surely one that would intimidate the opposition. Well that's certainly what it looked like after 21 minutes when Sean Morrison handed Town the lead in scrappy fashion marking the beginning of a crazy 8 minutes that would see us emerge with a three goal lead. Who got the other two goals? Well who else? Jordan Rhodes, on the day that Robin Van Persie proved to be invaluable to Arsenal, Rhodes did the same for us. The way that he seems to interject some of the truly atrocious football in this league with moments of class and genius is remarkable. His first goal was a joy, a perfect header steered into the far corner beyond the reach of the keeper, and his second was an example of a diamond in the rough. Grotesque defending, and frenetic attacking culminating in a delicious finish from the leagues most potent player. For the past two seasons we have always known he's capable of grabbing a goal or two, equally capable of missing a few chances, but I never saw him as something special. This season however, he's scored all sorts of goals, from impossible angles, impossible situations and a few easy ones too, but he really has shown his class, and keeping hold of him might also prove to be impossible. But there we stood, on the precipice of another Wycombe, or Stockport. As I tweeted at 2-0, I wouldn't be comfortable until we got a third, and I was fairly comfortable for around 3 minutes, when Steven Schumacher clawed one back for the shakers. Now this wasn't a moment to worry, I thought that'll simply be a blot on the result, a convenient part that we'll disregard when we're basking in the glory of a 7-1 victory. Well the rest of the half passed with barely anything of note, we had conceded and this had perhaps dampened our spirits going into half-time, but it seemed everything would be fine.

SECOND HALF

The worry at the beginning of the second half was that we were in an all too familiar position, we had a two goal lead to hang on and plenty of time to mess things up. However, I was very confident that after the events of midweek that we would have learnt, and would have been much better equipped this time to hold off such a disaster. Oh, and Bury are shit. So as the game meandered for the next 20 minutes or so, with not much occurring other than the occasional half-chance, I rubbed my hands with glee, we seemed to be killing the game off. Then it happened, Town began to self-abuse, we were left bamboozled down the flanks by a very poor attempt at skills by a Bury player, (the likes of which you might see down any given park in the country) the cross came in and a rather tame effort evaded Smithies and found its way into the back of our goal. This on the 70th minute allowed plenty of time for Town to implode, and so they did, however this time in even more spectacular fashion than you might think. After clawing the game back to 3-2 you'd think that Bury would have been right on it, and followed up that goal with another quick one, setting the scene for a dramatic late winner. This did not happen, and Town managed to weather the worst of the storm, and even had a very good chance themselves to score another, and thus kill the game. However, greed, arrogance or stupidity meant that we did not take advantage of this. So Danny Ward limped off with cramp, and we began to fall further and further back, before conceding once again to even things up at 3-3. The equaliser for me epitomizes Huddersfield Town this season, just when we needed to be strong, organised and think with our heads, we let someone loose at the back post and he tucked one away. This left even a little time for Bury to snatch an unthinkable winner, fortunately they didn't although I think it would have been befitting given our performance in the second half. The referee blew his whistle, Bury celebrated like they'd won the FA Cup droves of Huddersfield fans left in stunned silence, and a few misguided souls began to launch abuse at Danny Hoyle and Joe Grayson on twitter, both the sons of Dean Hoyle and Simon Grayson respectively.

So that's how it finished, a week that started with such high hopes and two games that started with similarly high hopes have finished with a feeling of suicidal disbelief. The manager came out after the defeat and said that he has now seen the very best and the very worst of Huddersfield Town, and I for one would be tempted to agree with him, however I've seen us play a lot worse in the past! The reaction to this week is the most crucial for us, as results go we've probably had two of the most demoralizing possible in a short space of time, and how we react psychologically is very important. You often hear managers talking about mental strength in football nowadays, and it is clear from the past week and possibly even the past few seasons that this team really does lack it. When our backs are up against the wall, when all things are conspiring against us and when the stakes are high, we have rarely come out on top. For evidence of this all you need to look at is Millwall away in the play-offs, Peterborough in the final last year, and the string of draws that we have managed after been in control of matches. The current manager is not at fault in my opinion, he cannot help that his players lack mental strength and a determination to succeed, he can only try and fix this, and the loan market is the only way I think he can this season. 

On a recent podcast I heard Lee Dixon discussing how he was physically threatened by Paul Davis and Tony Adams before a North London derby, that if he didn't play his heart out then they would batter him. Now, I'm not condoning bullying or physical intimidation, but I am definitely calling for strong heads and leaders in this squad. We need someone out there on the pitch to motivate the lads when things are going wrong, and to get them playing well. I've said it before, but if we had someone with the same mentality of Roy Keane on that pitch do you think we would be squandering leads so willy nilly? No, we wouldn't because the players would be so scared to turn off, even for a moment in case they were to suffer the wrath of that man. 

Can Simon Grayson be this man? I don't think so, all you need to do is look at his record at Leeds, and it becomes only too apparent that he's the type of manager accustomed to overseeing horrendous comebacks from the opposition. Can he bring in the right type of players to combat a lack of mental strength? Well he did with Leeds, after they were beaten by a Millwall side who were no doubt less talented than them in the play-offs, he went out and augmented his squad with characters that ultimately saw Leeds promoted automatically the following season. This year however I don't think we'll be celebrating a promotion, Grayson hasn't the time to install his own players into the squad, and even if he does bring in a few loan signings they'll only be temporary. The players he has, and will predominantly have until the end of the season are Lee Clarks, the ones who are all to adept at bottling matches and throwing away opportunities. 

If we are to go up, as highly unlikely as it would seem at present time we're going to have to either dramatically and miraculously improve, or beat one of if not both of the Sheffield clubs on the way. Now if Grayson can get a few characters in a make his mark on the squad then I think we do stand a chance of promotion. But as it stands I think there are a few other clubs better placed than us to gain promotion, and with the crowded fixture list awaiting us, it doesn't give Grayson and his management team much time to change things.

We have to make something positive from this week, and we can look back on Saturday as bizarre as it seems and say we gained a point on Sheffield United, perhaps an invaluable point. Shame and anger are great motivators, two emotions the players should be feeling right now, and hopefully they can channel these emotions into two positive results this week. If they can't get over this week and respond positively for the rest of the season, then I suspect it will be the play-offs for us, and we all know what happens in the play-offs.

Luck Of The Draw

Well, well, well... Simon Grayson has barely got his feet under the table and the ghost of Lee Clark is already haunting him. A standard and efficient victory on Saturday against Exeter was a good start for the Leeds man, even if there were signs of recent problems, but then Deja Vu hits us.
It was brilliant to see Joey back in the starting line-up for the match down at the Lamex this evening, possibly that lynch-pin in the centre of the park that would offer us more stability, as oppose to Anton Robinson... The two goals came and the team seemed to b playing well, but then it happened as it has 14 times this season. That's right we've drawn 14 times this season, 13 of which have come from and the one we didn't mess up was that horrible evening at Victoria park, when my highlight of the day was eating not one but two pies.
So we did it again, and it's now becoming inevitable and to an extent mildly amusing how we always manage to shoot ourselves in the foot. There will be many of you reading this that are still incensed by what happened, but I have now become far too accustomed to this sort of result that I can type this without rage ebbing through my veins.
The management need to address this problem as soon as possible, as it's clear that Lee Clark could not find a way to fix it during his time at the club. The solution is not so easy however, as I think it is largely a mental problem that the players have. Are we a team full of losers? A team full of bottlers? Or do we simply fall into an arrogant complacency? These are issues that Simon Grayson, Glyn Snodin and 'Dusty' Miller need to sort out. My method would be to get the players in tomorrow morning and spend the entire day playing out small matches off attack and defence. It might be an idea to give the defending team a match situation to envisage, let's say perhaps that of defending a 2-0 lead, on the other side we would have our most potent attacking threats, and practice this scenario until they got it right. If they don't get it right, then Grayson and company should berate them and go ape-sh*t at them, and maybe in a match they might be able to see out a lead through fear of what may be waiting for them in the dressing room if they don't
You don't see a Manchester United team regularly doing this sort of thing, because the players know for a fact if they did that Ferguson would destroy them in the dressing room, and maybe this is what we need.
The play-offs are a certainty for us this season, as we clearly don't posses the mental strength to secure second spot, and we all know what happens in the play-offs. As Larry has said himself, we won't begin to see his influence on the team until probably the start of next season, I don't know if this is a pre-excuse, but hopefully for us he's wrong. Hopefully his influence rubs off on the team in time for the play-offs, and we can shake off the ghost of Lee Clark, the one that is prone to self-destruction and falling at the final hurdle. Hopefully, just hopefully.

I'm back, and by God things have changed

Hello and welcome back to TerrierBlog, after taking a sabbatical longer than Kevin Keegans I'm back to rant and rave about Huddersfield Town. I the meantime an awful lot of things have gone on at the Galpharm, and as I write this now 'Thimon Gwayson is the new Town chief, and Lee Clark is being touted as the next Mourinho.

Firstly, I'll start with my views on Lee Clark, and his somewhat shock sacking last Wednesday! I'd like to state that I am fully behind the decision of Hoyle to sack the geordie and get someone else in, however I must say I was shocked that it happened when it did. At Meadow lane was the first time I began to hear genuine unrest amongst fans towards the manager. As those of you who follow me on twitter will know (@TerrierBlog) I was informed by a gentleman in the toilets at half-time, that Clark was on his last legs and that O'Driscoll was the man to lead us to promotion. Unfortunately my rest-room confidante was not 100% right, but this signalled to me the beginning of the decline for Clarky. As we all know Lee spent an awful lot of money, at times looked out of his depth, and tactically inept. I did expect his sacking to come at the end of the season, after what I imagine would have been another unsuccessful promotion campaign. Fortunately in my opinion, Dean Hoyle spotted the potential for failure and acted quickly to change things, hopefully for the better.

Now onto the new manager, Simon Grayson from our arch-rival Leeds United, not for me my first choice, but still a very good manager. Myself, like many Town fans was hoping for Neil Warnock to come in, however it seems we were beaten by that shady fellow from up the road. However many people dislike Grayson for his Leeds United connections, need to embrace him, set aside their gripes and get behind the team and the manager for the crucial run-in. As we have all seen, Grayson masterminded the first cautionary steps of Blackpool into the big time. He was backed quite well by the owners of Blackpool, invested his money wisely and took a relegation threatened team into the Championship. On the way he employed a very entertaining style of football, based on hard-work and organisation but also combined with pragmatic attacking which led to a flurry of goals. Then, he took the reigns at Leeds and managed to do what previous regimes had failed to do, get a big team with high expectations out of league 1 (see the parallels?). Last season Leeds came close to the play-offs with limited funds, and looked well set to at least equal that this season. Along the way he masterminded some fantastic, entertaining results and brought the spotlight to Bell-end road with a few cup runs, and that huge victory at Old Trafford.

Although he did seem to tail off towards the end of his career with the whites, conceding bucket loads of goals and suffering embarrassing defeats, it's clear there was something sinister at play...Ken Bates anyone? I think if he can emulate even 70% of his past success then we will be very well placed to achieve promotion, hopefully this season and if not the next. I lost the belief at Old Trafford, although it came back in patches throughout the season I don't think I'd ever have had that belief under Clark, but it's back now.

#believe

Charlton and the interlull

Well it’s been some time since my last blog to you folks, in the  time since my last update we have beaten Nottingham Forests 42 league unbeaten run. We made it to 43, but unfortunately lost to Charlton, in reality thinking back to it, I don’t think anyone was too confident of us beating Arsenals record considering our tough run of games.

Anyway 43 league games unbeaten is a wonderful thing, and something that will be remembered for some time to come. However, the loss to Charlton could be a blessing in disguise. We are no longer the focus of media attention, we no longer have to continue running battles with Adrian Durham and Gabriel Zakauni over twitter; and most importantly we can focus on winning games rather than not losing.

Unfortunately for us, we have a rather long wait before we can attempt to put this right and bounce back, Bournemouth is next on the agenda, and is in my opinion a must-win game. Not only for the 3 points, but to show we have reacted properly to this setback, and to set us up nicely for the forthcoming games.

A mention must go out to the unbeaten run, and it should be commended. We went nearly a year without losing in the league, however we didn’t achieve our ultimate goal of promotion in May, and we still haven’t. We can look back on it with pride, however if we don’t win promotion this season, then it will lose significance. Not losing isn’t everything, winning is what matters, and if any further proof of this was needed, then look no further than Sheffield Wednesday; a side tanked 5-1 by Stevenage but still sitting pretty in second.

Now onto the game itself... I think we dominated the game for large periods, but when the first goal came in I never thought we would get back into. With this Town team it seems possible to gauge their fortunes very early on. Our attacks were repetitive and predictable and our defence failed on two occasions. A goal early on in the second half may have changed it, but as time wore on, and passes were misplaced my hopes of a result dipped. Yes we had much more possession than Charlton, and yes we dominated the second half, but we scored none and conceded two. Not a recipe for success.

 However it was pleasing to see Charlton give us so much respect in the second-half, and credit must be given to them for the result. The first was the result of a fantastic delivery, and their defensive display was nothing short of fantastic. They stood firm, resolute and gave their all, and for that they thoroughly deserved their victory. Perhaps we played the way we did because of the pressure regarding the unbeaten run, and the added intensity of being live on sky, or maybe it was just a bad day at the office. Oh well we move on, one result doesn’t decide the season and we must put it behind us and kick on now. We all remember how strong we were in the second half of the season, and If we do that this season then there is no doubt we will be promoted, so fingers crossed.

On to the signings made, Jon Parkin and Alex Bruce on loan from Cardiff and Leeds respectively. Two very astute signings I think, Parkin is a similar player to Lee, and will probably provide more of a goal threat than the big Irishman. Alex Bruce is a competent defender, and will hopefully provide some stability to the defence, regardless of his family connections. It wasn’t shocking to see Mccombe go to Preston on loan, as I think he has perhaps found himself marginalised after his sending off against Orient. So if Parkin and Bruce fit in, and play to their capabilities the team will be improved, which is all we can ask for.

A special mention must go to Gary Speed, a fantastic footballer, talented young manager and model professional who sadly passed away last weekend. Thoughts must go out to his family and friends at this time. A great shame and a very sad time for the world of football.

RIP Gary Speed