Five conclusions on Huddersfield Town's new verve after Southampton heartbreak

Jon Worthington's side put in an encouraging attacking showing even as they shipped five goals to lose on the south coast

1. That was a lot of fun

Despite the result, this has to be our starting point, because what are we even watching football for if not this?

From start to finish, the game was absolute chaos in the best possible way. We’re struggling to remember the last time we enjoyed a game of football so much — not just a Huddersfield Town game, but any game.

Both teams were going for it, particularly after Southampton found another gear in the second half, and that has been something Town fans have been crying out for all season; not in spite of their league position, but because of it. As Jon Worthington pointed out after the game, he didn’t want to set up a side to play safety-first and end up losing 2-0.

But this is also a salient point because it’s important to the players. We saw last season how vital it is for a squad to enjoy the football they play, a message that Matty Pearson conveyed when speaking to the press following Darren Moore’s dismissal last week.

It all fell apart in the end, which obviously can’t be overlooked, and the reasons for which we will explore in more detail later. But this was never a fixture Town would have had circled as one where they were likely to come away with any points. In that context, the key thing now is that Town can go into their midweek fixture at home to Sunderland having proved they are capable of putting together moves that can hurt even the most in-form side in the division.

Southampton have not conceded this many goals at home since losing 1-4 with ten men against Leicester back in September. Town scored more goals at St Mary’s on Saturday than Watford, Sheffield Wednesday, Plymouth, Swansea, Blackburn, Cardiff, Bristol City and West Brom managed between them in Southampton’s previous eight Championship home games.

Given Town’s difficulties getting on the scoresheet from open play this season and the standard of opposition, we came away from the game taking more encouragement from the 3 on the scoreboard than disappointed by the 5 showing opposite. Going into the game, that’s the most we could have asked for.

2. Jon Worthington’s gameplan was spot on

The assumption was that Town would take a cue from what they did in the second half against Sheffield Wednesday and look to play purely on the counter-attack. The teamsheet only seemed to confirm that with Josh Koroma preferred to Bojan Radulovic despite Worthington’s acknowledgement after the game that the January arrival could have started.

We couldn’t have been more wrong. Town were a 3-4-3 in possession, which normally folds back into a deep-lying 5-4-1 off the ball, as we saw under Carlos Corberan when he was most fond of the system.