Five conclusions: Huddersfield Town start summer holiday early in Burton

This felt like a last-day-of-the-season affair with little at stake, when nothing could have been further from the truth

1. Awful

Burton-upon-Trent is an unusual place to take a holiday. Even so, too many Huddersfield Town players already seemed mentally checked out by the time they arrived.

Jon Worthington publicly rejected the idea that his players had given up on the season — or, at least, that he hoped they had not — but the evidence was there for us all to see.

Only three or four players at a time looked to be putting in anything like the required level of effort, and that’s being generous. Jonathan Hogg’s frustration only grew over the 90 minutes, as his relentless drive went unmatched by those around him.

Whatever the game-plan was, it was indiscernible. All we can say definitively is what the outcome was: Town were far too easy to play over and through.

We could talk about how Ben Wiles drifting from the right into the number 10 role, while Lasse Sorensen pushed forward, left Matty Pearson with a huge amount to do — some of which he managed well, and just as much of which he didn’t.

We could talk about how unlike the old Hollywood power couple, Burton found Taylor completely resistible, or how their lack of thought around the opposition box made them easy to defend against.

But all tactical analysis is pointless when the truth is that so many players in this Town side gave the impression of standing around or spinning in circles while Hogg tried his best to single-handedly clean up their mess.

The lack of thought and care was summed up by, well, countless incidents. But when we saw Lee Nicholls play a square goal kick short to Josh Ruffels, receive the ball back, then punt it aimlessly into midfield to give Burton possession, we knew how the rest of the afternoon was going to go. The scoreline was still just 1-0 with less than a quarter of the game played.

You barely need the reminder, but with the greatest of respect, Burton started the day in the relegation zone. They tore Town apart again and again as if they were a higher-division team in a cup tie.

No, in fact, that’s giving them too much credit. This felt like the final day of the season after a long, hard campaign where Town have just avoided relegation with a game to spare and the manager had been sacked; the 4-1 at Millwall under Danny Schofield after Danny Cowley’s dismissal comes to mind.

That would be an indignity in itself, but it was made more insulting by the other results going Town’s way on Saturday afternoon as Bolton lost and Reading drew.

If Town had bothered turning up, we might be talking about the play-off push being unexpectedly back on. Instead, they’ve slipped down to ninth and fallen yet another point away from the top six.

2. Awful, awful