Don’t worry, Town boss is no Leeds fan

press conferences over the last six months have come to learn that he will always try hard to find a way to answer any questions we put to him as honestly and thoroughly as he can.

That honesty will have become very clear to those Town fans who heard or read Cowley’s post-match press conference at Elland Road following the 2-0 defeat to Leeds United.

I have heard from several Terriers fans who were upset at the extent of Cowley’s praise for Town’s fiercest rivals. He called Marcelo Bielsa a genius, insisted it is a matter of when and not if they get promoted, declared them to be the best team in the division by miles, and said: “I actually really enjoyed it in a sadistic way because it felt like the heat was on and you felt like you’re really living.”

Naturally this rubbed a few Town fans up the wrong way. With the club still very much in a relegation battle, how can the manager come out with such effusive praise for the opposition directly after a heated local derby?

Out of context, it’s easy to see how Cowley’s analysis might have come across as tone-deaf to a set of fans that were already licking their wounds. But even a full transcript doesn’t tell the whole story.

The postmatch routine for managers is to first give an interview to any TV media that may be present – in this case, EFL on Quest. They will then speak on camera to the club’s official social media channels, and then to local radio reporters covering Town, which we normally join in with too, before finally speaking to the written press.

It’s the lattermost interview that we transcribed to use for Examiner

Sport and that will have been reported most widely.

Crucially, this is the only interview that saw Cowley subject to questions from the reporters explicitly covering Leeds United and only Leeds United, rather than those outlets concerned with the Huddersfield angle or a neutral perspective.

There were eight questions asked in that final press conference. Knowing that Mel Booth had already spoken to Cowley at pitchside and covered most of the ground I would have, I asked just three of those eight questions – the first two and the last one.

All the other five questions came from reporters covering Leeds United, who often struggle to get anything meaningful out of Marcelo Bielsa via his interpreter.

Those questions were: At this stadium today, does it feels at all like it did at Lincoln when everything was going so well and the fans were really dreaming again?

What did you think Leeds’ best quality is?

“When Leeds go up [not ‘if’], so you think they’ll do it?”

Out of context, it’s easy to see how Cowley’s analysis might have come across as

tone-deaf