Five conclusions: Huddersfield Town take step in right direction with hard-fought point at Lincoln

There was still room for improvement for the Terriers, but it was refreshing to see Lee Grant’s side go toe-to-toe with a promotion rival in excellent form

1. This was a good point for both sides

We said in the five conclusions and on the podcast before this game that we wanted to see Huddersfield Town start to get wins against the teams above them. There was no better time to start than against Lincoln.

We changed our tune about 20 minutes into this game. It rapidly became apparent that Lee Grant was bang on the money when he said this would be the hardest clash of Town’s season so far.

Not to turn into We Are Imps, but the first half from Lincoln was the best we’ve seen from Town’s League One opponents this season, and by a considerable distance.

After a dismal first few minutes in which Town looked worryingly off the pace and out of sorts, the visitors gathered themselves. We still had some gripes with Town’s play thereafter, but the fact that they were on the back foot for so much of the half was less to do with anything they were doing wrong and more to do with Lincoln being superb everywhere except in the Town box.

You could see why the Imps have only lost one league game at home this season. Their defensive work was excellent, and their ability to break through an intense Town press and play the ball into dangerous areas was impressive.

We’re convinced that if Town had played this game a month ago, they would have conceded three times, as was their regular habit. Goalless at half-time felt like a job well done for Grant’s side, in the circumstances.

And yet despite that, by the final whistle, our final analysis was that this was a breathlessly competitive and entertaining game between two good sides in good form. Lincoln deserved a goal for their first-half performance, and Town deserved one for their second-half showing.

That’s not how it played out, of course. Still, on balance, it was the right scoreline and a good point for both sides nonetheless — and both managers had to agree.