Five conclusions: Huddersfield Town reap rewards for finally getting basics right

An injury-time strike for Rotherham did little to take the gloss off Huddersfield's best all-round performance for a long time

1. Better

Last week’s five conclusions were written in the half-expectation that the club board may call time on Lee Grant’s tenure. This feeling was built on the Nagle regime’s previous responsiveness to fan discontent.

This time, the feeling seems to be that the manager is not the main source of Town’s problems. After looking back at all the goals Town have conceded in the league so far this campaign, we were even more inclined to agree.

Still, patience will not be limitless, and Grant himself acknowledged on Friday afternoon that the question of where the blame should most fairly be laid is irrelevant to his position, and that finding a way to get his players into the right mindset to win and keep their focus was part of his job.

The reaction from the stands last Saturday practically shouted that doing that in one game against Rotherham was never going to lead to complete forgiveness. Even so, Town can only tackle their issues one game at a time. The already much-belated improvement we have been waiting for had to start here.

Thankfully, it did. Right from minute one, you could see that everyone was more dedicated to their task and more committed to winning their individual battles.

We know this side has goals in it if the defence do their part. Town got three in some style, all of which owed something to solid work off the ball.

The first came from Ryan Ledson cutting out a Rotherham ball in his own half. The second came from a Ledson interception on the edge of the Town box before Leo Castledine won a tackle on the second ball. The third saw Ledson commit to winning a header off a loose ball in the final third before Castledine won a sliding tackle and then burst into the box and glance Lynden Gooch’s cross home.

There is still a little bit of a way to go, mind. Town were exceptionally fortunate that Rotherham had an early goal was disallowed after Huddersfield let a man go totally free at the back post and Lee Nicholls failed to seize the delivery out of the air. The referee’s decision was the correct one — Ledson was being given a big bearhug at the back post — but Town’s good fortune was found in that foul being entirely incidental and having no actual bearing on the ball finding the net.

Then there was that Rotherham goal deep into injury time, which came about after Radinio Balker went up for a header that looked to be bound to be headed away by the excellent Joe Low. That goes down as another soft and avoidable goal against Town to deny them a clean sheet — though as Grant noted, at least that mix-up was the result of a player showing too much commitment, rather than it being lacking altogether, as has so often been the case this season.

In the end, didn’t matter precisely because they had done their jobs so well for the 93 of the previous 94 minutes. Despite the lack of a clean sheet, Rotherham’s expected goals of just 0.15 is a new best for Town this season.

That was admittedly aided by Rotherham being absolutely woeful with their crossing, but even still, there were plenty of moments where we think the Town of the past few weeks may have let Rotherham force their way back into the game. But here, they stood solid. It’s still not completely perfect, but it was progress nonetheless.