Five conclusions: Chance squandered for Huddersfield Town in Burton draw

Michael Duff's side threatened Burton plenty after going behind in a poor first half, but could only find the finishing touch once to rescue a 1-1 draw

1. This was a missed opportunity

Huddersfield Town earned praise for overcoming a two-goal deficit to draw with Lincoln City a few weeks ago. However, such praise is harder to justify this time around.

In part, that’s a cumulative thing: dropping points in two of the past three home games is not ideal. The standard of opposition exacerbates matters, too, of course: regardless of the circumstances, any side gunning for automatic promotion would expect to win a home tie against the side propping up the rest of the table.

What’s more, it feels like a significant missed opportunity, especially since both teams occupying the crucial top two spots at the start of the day dropped points — Wycombe suffered a 2-1 defeat to Charlton, while Birmingham shared the spoils with Blackpool.

Rescuing a point late on means Town haven’t lost any ground. They remain five points off the automatic places, and now have a game in hand on the side in second after Wrexham claimed an injury time winner. But that’s the frustration: with a win, they could have positioned themselves to leapfrog the Welsh side into second place.

Town certainly created enough chances to win the game, but again, all the more frustrating. If they had been able to show a more clinical edge, victory would surely have followed. Unfortunately, some of their persistent issues emerged again, and prevented Town from getting the job done all the way.

2. Falling behind left Town with a side not ideally suited to the task

Long-standing issue number one: Town find it difficult to break down teams that sit back and look to soak up the pressure.

Naturally, from the opposition’s point of view, that’s by design. Burton set up in a low block and started time wasting from the moment they took the lead in the 13th minute — an entirely understandable and respectable strategy given their position.

This left Town in a tough spot, because their starting line-up appeared poorly equipped to deal with such a strategy — and their plight wasn’t helped by losing Danny Ward to injury just two minutes in.