Huddersfield Town digest: Nagle on summer plans, Easter weekend team news
The Terriers will take on Cambridge United and Stockport County over the Easter weekend hoping to spark a miraculous end-of-season play-off charge
What’s been said
— Kevin Nagle, on what lays ahead for the club:
“We need to make changes on the pitch, we’re going to make changes on the pitch, and I mean it. We’ve got to make changes with management and coaching, we’ll make those changes, but I think they’ve got to have a little faith.
“… “There are a lot of changes that we can’t really talk about. I do not want to litigate personnel in the public domain, but I think as I’ve seen on some of the message boards and certainly X, I’ve always heard everybody.
[Just] because they don’t see me doing something publicly, it doesn’t mean that I have not. I just want to let them know I hear you.
“I can’t also make decisions just purely on the basis of really what the public at large says, because unfortunately they just don’t have all the information privately that we could never share with the public.
“Sometimes decisions are made privately, and it may look like the decision is made on half-baked information, but trust me, we’ve made decisions, and we’ve made decisions going forward really into this next season, they just haven’t been publicly announced yet.”
— Kevin Nagle, on the season so far and the fans’ response:
“We’ve only taken this over 22 months ago. We’ve made a lot of mistakes, we’ve also done some good things as well, probably more off the pitch than on the pitch but I just want to make sure that people do understand that we’re giving it our all.
“Let me stress: I do not think this is a failure because we’re going to get this right. People are going to make mistakes, and sometimes candidly, they might make them twice. I’m not hedging my bet on that, but the reality of it is I really don’t quit on these things.
“I would say this much, our second season is not over yet. Are we going to get in the play-offs? I don’t know, we’re outside the play-off circle.
“It’s going to take a lot of good luck and winning as well, which we haven’t done lately, I wish I could say we had. I wish we were back on that 16-game unbeaten streak, but you can’t live in the past, you only have to live in the future, and that’s where we are right now.”
— Lasse Sorensen, responding to the side’s performance against Burton and the fans’ vocal reaction:
“Of course you hear it and it's not like anybody wants to hear that, but I think it's fair enough. When it's below a certain standard then you have to [respond]. Criticism is a part of it and they let us know that they were not happy with what was happening on that specific day, which is fine.
“So then it's our job to go out and prove [ourselves] and believe in what we're doing.”
— Jon Worthington, on the performance at Burton and the challenge ahead
“Disappointed is an understatement and the players are well aware of that as well. Some of the things weren’t acceptable and I won’t accept that.
“… I don’t know the answer [as to why it happened]. Unfortunately there have been games throughout the season where this has happened and we have to put it right. We have to focus on the next game and put it right at home.
“Every team in the country will go 1-0 down or 2-0 down at some point and it’s the response and how you react. Not everybody is going to be vocal, not everyone has to be a leader and drag people along from a vocal perspective, but you drag people along by leading by example and doing the things on the pitch that are expected of you.
“You need to find out what you can bring to that party in difficult moments of the game — everyone’s will be slightly different — ultimately to get the outcome we’re trying to get.”
Coming up next
Cambridge United could be relegated on Friday if they lose at the John Smith’s Stadium and other results go against them (victories for either Burton or Bristol Rovers)
Neil Harris’ side have won just once since 1st March, away to bottom-of-the-table Shrewsbury earlier this month, and were on the receiving end of a 4-0 loss in the reverse fixture just before Christmas.
Former Premier League promotion hero Elias Kachunga is sure to receive a particularly warm welcome should be feature for Cambridge.
Town will then visit 4th-placed Stockport County on Monday, who could already be guaranteed at least a play-off spot by then depending on how things go on Friday.
Dave Challinor’s side are on a roll at the moment after four straight wins and still have faint hopes of challenging for automatic promotion with a five-point gap to Wrexham in 2nd.
Town claimed a 1-0 victory in the reverse fixture on Boxing Day courtesy of Lewis Bate’s first-minute own goal.
Huddersfield Town injuries and absences
Brodie Spencer and Herbie Kane have both been in individual training as they close in on returning from hamstring and knee injuries respectively.
Tom Lees has been out of action with a knee injury since February, with no return date set.
Chris Maxwell has an ongoing hip issue and Tom Iorpenda has been out with a back issue.
Rhys Healey, Danny Ward and Nigel Lonwijk are all ruled out for the season.
Predicted line-up to face Cambridge United
4-2-3-1: Lee Nicholls; Lasse Sorensen, Radinio Balker, Josh Ruffels, Mickel Miller; David Kasumu, Jonathan Hogg; Callum Marshall, Ben Wiles, Ruben Roosken; Dion Charles.
Substitutes: Jacob Chapman, Matty Pearson, Antony Evans, Joe Hodge, Tawanda Chirewa, Josh Koroma, Joe Taylor.
Huddersfield Town Women
Town Women will visit Barnsley Women on Sunday afternoon in the County Cup semi-final.
The winners will progress to the final at the New York Stadium later this month, facing either Sheffield United U21s or Rossington Main.
Our schedule
We’ll have reaction to all the men’s and women’s games as usual on this busy weekend, with ratings available to all readers and the more full reactions available to our lovely paying backers. (Get a 7-day free trial now!)
Our backers will also get access to our weekly podcast, which will this week come out on Tuesday morning rather than the usual Monday release.