Five conclusions: Huddersfield Town find consistency and quality to continue winning run

A third successive 3-1 win for Lee Grant's Terriers featured a sensational first half, a Bojan Radulovic masterclass, and another canny tactical tweak that worked a treat

1. Consistency at last!

If Phil Connors taught us nothing else — and he didn’t — it is that reliving the same thing again and again can suddenly turn from a curse to a delight if you know how to make the most of it.

The only way Huddersfield Town were consistent a few weeks ago was in how poor they were. How did they ever expect to win Andie MacDowell’s affection when they kept stumbling into that same puddle again and again? Nobody likes a man in wet trousers.

Now, blessedly, we have seen the same kind of positive performance from Town three games in a row, with the same 3-1 scoreline recorded each time.

Lee Grant said after the game that he had told his unchanged side to pick up where they had left off before the international break. That’s exactly what they did. The game was effectively over within 16 minutes, with Town racing to a three-goal lead courtesy of Bojan Radulovic, Dion Charles, and a first-ever Terriers goal for Lasse Sorensen.

Just like Mansfield did in the Vertu Trophy, and Plymouth did in the previous game, the opposition had a good second-half spell that produced a goal in response — but otherwise it was all Huddersfield.

For the first time this season, Town are making a habit of playing well for long periods and getting the goals their play deserves. Everyone is contributing, too, with all three results representing proper team efforts.

And talk about good timing to hit a spot of form. We spoke last week and in the build-up to this game about how any side that gets a run of results going in this division has a very good chance of climbing to the top of the table. Sure enough, eight of the nine sides ahead of Town at the start of the day dropped points (Mansfield included, obviously). The automatic promotion places are now just three points away with a game still in hand.

Let’s not kid ourselves: it’s just two league wins in a row, with plenty more tough games to come over the next few weeks. However, given where Town were at the start of the month, they couldn’t have given us any more.

2. And not just consistency, but quality too

That first half from Town, in particular, was as good as we have seen any League One side play since they came down to this level last year.

We actually said ‘oooh’ a few times in the press box at some of Town’s play: the one-touch passing, the little flicks, the constant movement up the pitch that Mansfield simply didn’t know how to deal with. We cannot remember the last time we made those kinds of noises in appreciation of such delightful penetration. Not while watching Town, anyway.