Sloppy and wasteful Huddersfield Town need to take EFL Trophy more seriously

If they're genuinely serious about getting to Wembley and bringing home some silverware, both the players and Lee Grant need to look long and hard at their poor showing against Harrogate

It’s the EFL Trophy, so ordinarily it wouldn’t be worth getting too excited or upset, whatever happens. Except that Lee Grant has been clear that he wants his side to win this competition. More importantly, the issues Town had in defeat all felt very familiar.

We gave Town the benefit of the doubt, to a certain extent, for their poor finishing against Exeter. We preferred to take encouragement from the fact they created as many chances as they did after a couple of underwhelming performances.

This game was a chastening message about what can happen if their finishing doesn’t improve. It was also a dispiriting reminder that Town haven’t worked out all the problems that have held them back from romping to the top of League One this season.

You can even take Owen Goodman’s blunder out of the equation, and you’ve still got a deeply sub-par performance, particularly in the first half.

The play was ponderous at times, which led directly to Goodman passing the ball straight to Conor McAleny on the edge of his own box. Ellis Taylor took it off his teammate’s feet, rounded the keeper, and fired home.

Fine. Well, not fine. But mistakes will happen, and there were still 79 minutes to play — drone interruptions notwithstanding. What Town did with the remaining time was reflected on the scoreboard at the end of the night.