Minority Report - Huddersfield Town

On the finances and attendance's .

Imo we do well for the size of the Town and the encroaching catchment areas of other clubs around us.( Which has been well documented )
I would say Huddersfield can't be that far in front of us financially considering the price of their STs ,are a slightly larger town with probably only one club in direct competition for custom.
I don't know the story of their financial status but I would wager without considerable debt or owner waivers they would struggle and that's not even with the players they have on massive wages ( yet)
Imo if Huddersfield fail to go up and lose a couple of players in the summer they may fail to repeat this season's success and that's where the story may unravel imo

 

I'm an optimist/happy clapper but I honestly think we got out of jail yesterday. We only matched them for the last 20-25 minutes when they seemed to lose energy. Up to that point we struggled to cope with their pace and power up top (Brown and their #23 ). Mooy was really classy, picking up loose balls and pulling strings in possession. They had a number of guilt edged chances where we cleared off the line, we scored from one of a handful of half chances.

I'm delighted with a point, you can see why Huddersfield are comfortably in the top six, but it's stretching reality to claim we could have won. Gutsy last ditch defending and an inspired 'keeping performance got us a draw we barely deserved and I'll take that with both hands, thank you very much. I have to say I really enjoyed it, Hecky and the players deserve credit for the never say die attitude they showed in a game where we were very much second best for the most.

 

Aye, it was a great point.

I've seen us play much better. Can't remember us being that poor first half for a long time. Pleasing to see them rally second half and as I say, we could have won it when it became frantic and end to end. As could they. Amazing defending to keep them out during one particular counter.

We looked at our best at Villa and first half against Brighton. Yesterday we definitely weren't. Yet grafted a point against the in-form side in the country. That's pleasing. And as someone who has to watch a bit of Derby, I can't see how we lose that. Can see us having a lot of joy if we go 4-4-2 and hit them quickly. They're the slowest side I've seen.

Blame me when they beat us.

 

Nail, hit, head.

 

Average attendance is 13,772 not 12,000. 6 clubs have a lower average than that

 

I completely agree that Huddersfield were the better side & deserved to win the game on chances created & overall play but no analysis can be fair without mentioning that just like the Brighton game we were denied a clear penalty early on at 0-0.

As we all know we're a much better side when the opposition has to force the game & it allows us to counter attack. To me if the referee does his job correctly then we would have had a better return of points from the last 2 home games.

Also worth mentioning that most around me thought Whitehead deserved to be sent off & I'd suggest that Wagner did too given that he took him off just after.

Also, 2 of the clear Huddersfield chances came from a blatant foul on Angus MacDonald.

We score an early goal & it's a completely different game that would've suited us much more.

 

The big issue seems to be the referee again. I very rarely mention the referee in my reports, the only exception being the referee for the Wolves game, who was special. The officials have a very hard job, of that there is very little doubt, and they will occasionally get things wrong, but they are the only individuals in the stadium who are not basing their decisions on bias towards one team or the other. It is only natural that as supporters, we will always favour our team, and argue for decisions being given that favour our team. So is not unnatural that we would think the ref is wrong when he does not give decisions our way. My advice to you is to take the referee and any bias that you think that he might have out of your thinking. In other words, assume he got his decisions right all the time. He won't, but it will help you to focus on the essentials like, what is my team doing wrong and what can we change so that we do better.

My interpretation of the decisions that you refer to is this. I have watched the early penalty incident on the Sky highlights a couple of times. It was too far away from my position in the ESU to be sure in real time. Two things are clear from the highlights. The first is that the referee was in a very good position to make the call, and the second is that Kent went to ground very easily. I think the ref got it right, but many things that happen during a game are opinion, rather than fact, and I am happy that there was no bias on the part of the ref, which is all you can ask. You are right that goals change games, but we did get things very badly wrong in terms of shape and structure in that first half, for which the ref is entirely blameless.

The foul by Whitehead looked bad, although once again, I did not have a good angle on it. However, once again, the refs positioning was excellent. He called it a booking and I am happy to accept his call. If you were sitting with the home fans, they will think he should have been sent off. It is supporters' bias and is why we have neutral refs.

Angus McDonald was not fouled in the incident when he was challenged for the bouncing ball. He got it wrong and fell over. I do not remember the other incident to which you refer.

I can see from what you have written that you thought the ref was wrong on a number of occasions, but what about the team. What did you think about how the team played?

 

Yiadom
Payne
Jackson
Moncur
Lee
Bradshaw
MacDonald
D'Almeida
A Jackson
Kpekawa
Kent
Armstrong
Morsy
Janko

 

Yiadom as well. But yeah I agree, but there's the possibility that players signed this summer play a bigger part next year, as well as players who have been here longer; complemented by new signings. That's effectively what happened last summer

 

Two jackSons?

 

Kayden and Adam

Yiadom and Payne were signed before last summer to me. They signed when we were still in L1 didn't they?

 

Very well put

 

Kayden and Adam

 

They were signed last may before promotion but couldn't play until this season so I'd count them as summer signings

 

I thought we were 2nd best. I think we'll struggle to outplay the better teams in the division due to the players we lost & it was hard enough to do so before.

I think we had several opportunities to counter attack them late in the second half with various players when Huddersfield & our final ball wasn't good enough. Surprisingly a couple of poor balls were by Matty James who I thinks a good addition.

I thought our left hand side was poor with Jones & Kent, I don't see a lot in Armstrong & whilst Mowatt looks talented when he's on the ball but he looks way off the pace. Reminds me of Goran Lovre.

I can't really fault the other 7 overall & Hammill & Bradshaw did well off the bench.

I just don't think we've got as many good players as we did early in the season, maybe that will change if Janko gets fit & Armstrong & Kent find some end product & Moncur & Mowatt get up to speed but it's asking a lot at this stage of the season.

I do think the referee has to be considered. We saw a cup final yesterday that was completely changed by a refereeing decision.

I think if you look at the amount of penalties we've had in our favour compared to how many we've had against us & you look at poor Marc Roberts having two incorrect ones given against him & surely if you don't agree on Kent on Saturday you'd agree on last weeks handball?

I don't want to sound like an idiot claiming there's some sort of conspiracy against us because I don't think there is but through a combination of us been a smaller team in this league, our manager refusing to criticise referees & probably a lack of quality refs we're getting shafted.

I say this as someone who thought the standard of refereeing has been fine for the past 2 seasons in league one yet we've come back up to the championship & I feel we're up against it. From speaking to friends & family that go to the games I don't think I'm in a minority.

I don't want Hecky to suddenly sound like a broken record but I'd like him to mention these things more because I believe it gets in referees minds. I'm convinced it's worked for Fergie, Mourinho etc.

 

First, the penalty that was not given against Brighton. I thought that I was in a good position to judge, and yes I thought it was a penalty. But when I saw the highlights from a different angle, it did not look as clear cut. That is it, if the referee is going to give a penalty, he must be sure. If he is not sure, it is a guess and he should not be giving a penalty. But we can all refer to isolated incidents and say, the referee got it wrong. But he cannot be 100% correct. No-one ever is. We just hope that when we are wrong, it does not cause too much pain. Match of the Day showed an incident on Saturday when the ref booked a player for diving in the box. The replay clearly showed that he should have given a penalty. The ref got it wrong. It is not just happening to us. All that you can hope for is that there is no intentional bias in a referee's decision-making.

I thought that Mowatt looked lost throughout. He played in three positions and did not seem to correctly interpret his role in any one of them. To be honest, he worried and frustrated me, greatly. I have had chance to calm down since, and I am now prepared to give him the benefit of my doubts. He has perhaps not been with us long enough to understand what his responsibilities are, and how Hecky wants him to play. I hope so because on Saturday, he looked like money wasted.

Others have been critical of our left side. I wondered at the time why Yiadom and Jones switched sides, as Jones clearly prefers the right, whereas Yiadom does not seem to mind which side he plays. I know from reading other postings that Kent frustrates many. He is young and has much to learn, but Hecky prefers him as a starter on the left to Hammill. In my opinion, Hammill is most effective if he is used in short bursts towards the end of games, when his opponent has tired. Hammill also offers less defensively. One only has to look at the overlap that created the late chance for Huddersfield. He left his feet in order to commit fully to the possible intercept, missed it, and was then off his feet and out of the game. In an ideal world, neither player would be our starter, but the same could be said for many of our first eleven. We lack quality throughout because we cannot afford quality, and yet we keep winning points, against the odds. It is ridiculous, but wonderful at the same time.

Matty James is a wonderful player. I urge you to watch him when we do not have the ball as he reads the game so well and covers for others. So much of his work goes by unnoticed, simply because it is work off the ball. OK, his passing fell below his high standards on Saturday, but there is more to the game than passing.

For a large part of the game, Armstrong was asked to play as the lone striker. This can work with a small, quick man, but only if the midfield can control the ball for a larger percentage of the time, and only if the midfield can get much closer to the front man. Sadly, Huddersfield won control of midfield early, and we were not able to wrest it back until the introduction of Hammill and Bradshaw late on. A small man has no chance of winning the type of ball that we were hitting up to him. He was just watching as most of it sailed over his head and through to their keeper. In fairness, the ball up to Bradshaw and Armstrong later in the game was not great, but we had the bit between our teeth. Our midfield was 20 yards further forward, and we pressurised their man in possession better. The unfortunate part was that when the press did not work, there was a lot of room beyond the press, directly in front of our back two, which Huddersfield very nearly took advantage of on at least two occasions.

I very much enjoy talking about games, about systems, about tactics and about players. I do not enjoy devoting too much time to referees. It is just something over which we have no control, and it just results in lots of moaning and groaning to no great effect. I would much rather talk about the team and about ways that we amateurs think we could make it better. The ideas are mostly hot air, but hot air warms you up, doesn't it.

 

I couldn't agree more about Matty James, he's a quality player for this level, I just wish he was 100% fit & that we'll see the best of him for longer than we will.

I get frustrated at Jones, Kent, Armstrong etc & then try to remember their ages & how far we've come & how much we're overachieving.

If we're been honest at least 2/3rds of this league can afford to take any of our players if they want to. That's the sad reality so I can't really complain at us coming up short ability wise against the better sides in this league