Five conclusions: Huddersfield Town show spirit again but soft defending proves costly

Town’s frailties at the back resurface with two avoidable goals against Blackpool; plus Liam Manning’s experiments and Cameron Ashia eating Will Alves’ lunch (not literally)

1. A point well rescued, and two points dropped

Where to even start on this one?

Given where Huddersfield Town were at half-time — two goals down and playing poorly — coming back to get the draw was a decent result. Funnily enough, the last time Town cancelled out a two-goal deficit was also against Blackpool, just over a year ago. Another big tick for Town showing a new level of spirit in difficult circumstances since Liam Manning’s arrival.

But then, as in every one of Manning’s four games in charge, the adversity Town had to overcome was largely self-inflicted.

They started well in the first 15 minutes, but their defending on a corner for the opening goal was dreadful. The Terriers seemingly decided there was no need to pick up any Blackpool players outside the width of the goal. Even so, Ashley Fletcher was able to apply the final touch with relative freedom. Lee Nicholls should also have done better than to let it bounce off his glove and under his body.

But hey, Ian Evatt acknowledged after the full-time whistle blew that it was a routine they had worked on for this game, and if Town had scored it, we’d probably be raving about how well-worked it was. Fine. These things happen.

The second goal, though… woof.

Town had several opportunities to stop it from happening, but Murray Wallace was outmuscled by Fletcher. Then both Wallace and Marcus McGuane failed to stop Michael Obafemi following his knockdown, after which Bali Mumba was caught unaware of the threat out wide, failing to stop the cross.

Worst of all, Karoy Anderson was allowed to get in at the back post entirely unmarked thanks to Radinio Balker apparently thinking there was no need to rush back to help the team defend. Not an ideal approach from, you know, a defender.

The late fightback meant it could have been worse. But in all candour, we were more irritated at Town for giving themselves the hill to climb than we were impressed that they did so. But perhaps that’s uncharitable.