Five conclusions on Peterborough United 0-2 Huddersfield Town

Michael Duff made a winning start as Terriers boss with his style of play serving Town well in their League One opener

1. This was a victory built on team ethos

Above all, we were struck by how challenging it was to single out any individual for either praise or criticism after this game.

Everybody had their fallible moments, but this is League One: we have to be more forgiving in this division, at least at this stage of the season. As Michael Duff rightly observed after the game, Peterborough’s best chances came from Town being sloppy with the ball, and that needs to be addressed in the future.

But Town still did more than enough to justify the three points, even if they partly owed their clean sheet to some wasteful finishing from Peterborough, especially in the first quarter of the game.

Even taking that into account, Town were worthy winners, having more than twice as many shots as Peterborough (17 vs 8), winning more than three times as many corners (10 vs 3), and making nearly twice as many tackles (21 vs 12). These kinds of headline stats can sometimes be misleading, but in this case they passed the eye test. (Side note: get used to having access to fewer complex but important stats for individual games this season, because League One is less well-served than the Championship on that front).

While their win came from two strikes outside the box, it’s already clear that Duff’s system is less about giving star players a platform to shine, and more about the application of the team as a whole. This was their first true test, and they passed it.

Oh, and Duff was also right to point out that the fans did their part in this fixture. They travelled in huge numbers, making it feel like a home game from before kick-off until the final whistle. Peterborough will have been a red-letter date in a lot of fans’ calendars, given the old rivalry between the two clubs, but we’re looking forward to hearing more of the Town faithful in the season ahead.