Five conclusions as Huddersfield Town's Exeter game plan pays off
It wasn't an encounter packed with excitement, but it didn't need to be as Town took the lead in the first half, doubled it in the second and did a professional job to see out the result
1. Huddersfield Town passed another test
There are those games in a season that leave you convinced your mind has been erased by the Men In Black on your way out of the stadium. This was one of them. By the time the reverse fixture rolls around in the penultimate game of the season, we are certain we will have to look back at this result to remember how it actually went.
That’s very much to Huddersfield Town’s credit. Michael Duff has warned us repeatedly not to treat winning as a routine thing that just happens, admitting after the game that he was a bit concerned that it might end up being ‘another Northampton moment’ — that is, following up a positive away result with the assumption that they would go into the next home game and win it automatically.
Duff is right to guard against that attitude in his players, because we’ve seen what can happen if they let it seep in. But after a nightmare September, Town have played the entire month of October with far more focus, far better game management, and far less tendency to make stupid, costly mistakes. If we’re coming into home games expecting routine 2-0s now — and we are — then that has happened for very good reasons.
You could tell that both sides were fatigued after playing three games in eight days, including a gruelling pair of Tuesday night fixtures. Like a second-hand mannequin warehouse, there were tired legs all over the shop, especially in the closing stages of the game.
In those circumstances, getting the three points against a side below them in the table only on goals scored, and doing so with relatively minimal fuss, was the best Town could hope for, and they delivered it. Most pleasingly, it felt like the execution of an intentional plan, rather than something that just happened. Duff knew he had to manage a somewhat beleaguered squad, and put together a game plan to suit.
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