Five conclusions: Pressure piles on Lee Grant as Huddersfield Town lose again

Alfie May's red card played a big part in how the game turned out, but the travelling fans made their feeling clear as Michael Duff's Wycombe Wanderers claimed a 3-0 victory

1. From bad to worse

With Kevin Nagle watching from the stands, Michael Duff played Banquo at Lee Grant’s banquet — the spectre of a manager Huddersfield Town had dismissed seven months ago, as Matt Glennon put it, for the heinous crime of dropping to seventh place.

Town have given Grant a level of control over the football operations that Duff never enjoyed, having worked under sporting director Mark Cartwright (though whether Duff would have wanted more autonomy or not is another question to which we have no answer).

With all that pressure on after seven points from as many league games, it felt appropriate that the Town fans were housed in the WhiffAway Stand for the afternoon. They and Grant were both desperate to see Town banish their recent stink.

No such luck.

For the first quarter of the game, Town looked a lot better — not incredible, but certainly better, with more intent, more willingness to play in advanced positions, and more control of the ball.

Over those first 25 minutes, Town had 59% possession and five shots to Wycombe’s zero — plus a couple of other openings when the hosts’ defending had to be absolutely spot on.

And then, of course, came the red card. Whether the greasy pitch played a part or not, and even if the challenge clearly came from over-enthusiasm rather than malice, Alfie May’s protests rightly fell on deaf ears: his challenge was late, high, and unnecessary.

By half-time, Town hadn’t managed another shot while Wycombe had nine — including the Cauley Woodrow header that gave them the lead.

Short of something spectacular, that was going to be game over and yet another bad day for Grant.

But things didn’t need to get quite as bad as they did — the scoreline would have been far worse if not for Lee Nicholls — and the Town fans made their feelings clear as Wycombe doubled their lead through what has become their chief bugbear of Grant’s style: playing it out short from the back. Joe Low gave the ball away unnecessarily after receiving a goal-kick from Nicholls. Fred Onyedinma was swiftly played in to score.

The chants of ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’ rang out loud and clear from the away end, with a less enthusiastic reprise heard after poor Dan Vost turned a cross into his own goal to make it 3-0.

Duff was dismissed for a run of 10 points from 11 games. Town fans have voiced their feelings on Grant’s seven points from eight games. You can’t help but wonder what Nagle’s feelings are after another summer of heavy investment.

2. Is there any way back for Lee Grant now?

That’s the question Nagle and the rest of the Town execs must ask themselves.