Five conclusions: All positives for Huddersfield Town after festive cheer at Cambridge

We have nothing but good things to say about Town's four-goal win

1. This was excellent

We noted with some trepidation before the game that after their dreadful start to the season, Cambridge had won four, drawn four and lost just two of their last ten games. This may not have turned out to be the top-versus-bottom clash the league table might have suggested after all.

But we needn’t have worried. Huddersfield Town’s previous four-goal away win this season, at Bolton, was a case of the Terriers being quite good and Bolton being awful. The same cannot be said for events at the Abbey Stadium.

Cambridge weren’t great, but at least gave Town a game, dominating the opening five minutes and the first 15 minutes or so after the break. Town have faced worse teams this season yet delivered poorer performances against them. Here, they were solid at the back throughout, allowing Jacob Chapman another quiet evening in goal with their determined blocking, though in fairness, Cambridge were guilty of a couple of big misses.

Even more pleasing, Town were often irresistible going forward. While the game was tougher than the scoreline might suggest, Town earned it, scoring in different ways and looking good both when playing on the counter-attack and when applying pressure over sustained periods — something Michael Duff has wanted to see for a while.

By half time, the game was all but done, with goals from David Kasumu, Brodie Spencer and Callum Marshall giving Town a three-goal advantage at the break for the first time since…well, alright, Morecambe in the League Cup earlier this season. But as far as we can tell from some frantic half-time googling, the last time they had done it in the league was in the Jordan Rhodes-inspired six-goal win over Wycombe in January 2012.

2. Callum Marshall is answering a lot of Town’s problems

We’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve said over the years that a striker getting a goal off his backside might precipitate an improved run of form. But that’s exactly what Marshall has done since he ratted one out against Leyton Orient last month.

After emerging from a spell where he appeared somewhat jaded (understandably so, given this is his first season playing regular senior football), the West Ham loanee now boasts four goals and an assist in his last 245 minutes for Huddersfield Town — the equivalent of not quite three whole games.