Five conclusions: Breitenreiter's gripes prompt moment of reflection

Huddersfield Town will be playing League One football next season after their 1-1 draw with Birmingham City

1. Huddersfield Town gave themselves too much to do

Not just in this game, but over the season. Sheffield Wednesday’s victory against West Brom confirmed that Town would need to win to take things to the final day.

Koji Miyoshi’s opener was a sickener, then, leaving Town to find at least two goals to stand any chance of survival.

It was a spirited second-half performance from Town, helped along by Rhys Healey scoring an equaliser within two minutes of the interval after a lovely ball from Ollie Turton – making his first start of the season – putting Jack Rudoni clear up the right to cut back for the January signing to score.

Town put Birmingham under pressure for the rest of the half, bar a handful of occasions when they had to ride out counter-attacks from the visitors. But they were unable to get the second goal they so needed.

Birmingham keeper John Ruddy had a good game, but aside from Danny Ward curling narrowly wide of the post from just outside the box, Town were unable to produce any further chances that had the fans out of their seats.

That last 45 minutes was about as good as we have seen from Town for a while, but against a direct relegation rival, in a must-win scenario, they still did not have enough. That about says it all, really.

As Andre Breitenreiter observed after the game: Town weren’t relegated on Saturday. They were relegated in the games prior, because they did not play well enough often enough.