Huddersfield Town player ratings as Terriers blow important play-off battle at Plymouth
Cameron Humphreys' goal against the run of play had the Terriers on the right track at the break, but the hosts hit back hard with three second-half goals
Lee Nicholls - 8
Had a superb first half between the sticks: commanding on set pieces, reacted sharply to Bim Pepple getting in on goal to save with his feet, and made sure he got the ball away from Owen Dale late in the half. Unfortunately received a blow to the head in defending a corner and had to go off in a concussion substitution just before half time.
Josh Feeney - 7
Put in a brilliant first-half performance. Was a bit more exposed after the break, through no fault of his own, with Lynden Gooch not giving him anything like enough cover out wide.
Murray Wallace - 7
As reliable as ever. Frustrated the Plymouth forwards with his robust presence in the first half. Took the captain’s armband from Ryan Ledson after the midfielder had to go off soon after the break. Did what he could with Town’s downfall coming elsewhere.
Sean Roughan - 6
Booked early on for a late and slightly high challenge. Looked a bit daft with a couple of pretty aimless long balls in the opening exchanges but settled into the game from there. Broadly fine, subbed off late on in a tactical switch.
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Lynden Gooch - 3
Wasn’t the most convincing player on the pitch to begin with and degraded from there. Gave the ball away in his own half too many times, including putting Nicholls under pressure with a backwards header to force an intervention from the keeper that Plymouth wanted given as a penalty. Completely lost control of the battle against Own Dale on that flank in the second half.
Ryan Ledson - 5
Solid enough in the first half. Gave away a cheap corner with a poor backpass in the second half and atoned a bit by clearing a shot off the line from the resulting set piece, but it still proved costly as Owen Dale went on to smash home. Went off holding his back/rear moments later.
Cameron Humphreys - 7
Great run and even more impressive composure to run at the Plymouth line, get into the box by selling a dummy, then finish to make it 1-0. Kept working hard throughout the game and was reliably good on his duels.
Bali Mumba - 4
Went in with a rather strong and high challenge on 18 minutes that some referees might have shown red for — got a yellow instead. Not as effective as Town would have liked, but does deserve some credit for racing back to make a superb recovery tackle that he had to get right to stop Joe Edwards getting clean through on Jak Alnwick.
Marcus Harness - 4
Great through ball to put Alfie May in for a first-half effort that was saved in easily the highlight of his game. Otherwise unable to make the most of Town’s rare attacking moments through most of the game, and looked (understandably) frustrated when they did get forward only for it to come to nothing late on.
Antony Evans - 5
Played his part in the build-up to Town’s opener. Almost handed Plymouth an equaliser seven minutes later with an ill-judged backwards pass that put Pepple in on goal, but Nicholls made the save. Blazed a decent half-chance well off target early in the second half before being replaced moments later.
Alfie May - 6
Better runs and movement at the centre-forward rather than going looking for work. Played Humphreys in to run at the defence and open the scoring, and later got in on goal himself off Harness’ pass but put a powerful effort straight at the keeper.
Substitutes
Jak Alnwick (for Nicholls 45+4) - Forced into action from the bench. Little he could do about the penalty, of course, but didn’t have command of the box on the equaliser and dropped a clanger for the third goal as he spilled a pretty tame effort straight at the feet of Owen Oseni to tap home. 3
David Kasumu (for Ledson 50) - Fine. 5
Cameron Ashia (for Evans 54) - Completely unnecessary foul off the ball to give away a penalty off a pretty directionless ball into the box. Went for the spectacular by shooting after Gascoigneing himself into the box at 3-1 down, despite better options ins the box. 3
Lasse Sorensen (for Gooch 77) - Necessary change at right-back — should have been done earlier. 5
Dion Charles (for Roughan 77) - Looked a bit sharper for his time out of the side. Had the right ideas for how to play off May and vice versa, but Plymouth were just happy to hold on and hit Town on the counter at that point. 5
Unused substitutes: Jack Whatmough, Marcus McGuane.
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