Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Fourth clean sheet is key for Terriers

- By MEL BOOTH @examinerHT­AFC

DANNY Cowley has drawn the base line for Huddersfie­ld Town’s clash with Luton.

While the John Smith’s Stadium boss is delighted with five points from the last run of three matches, he is just as pleased to have ended a run of three successive defeats by keeping three straight clean sheets.

It’s a record Cowley is keen to extend tonight as he knows it will help Town collect at least one more survival point.

Asked how big the target of a clean sheet is for his team, Cowley answered: “It’s massive.

“I have always been able to get my teams to defend well and keep clean sheets and, probably here, we’ve spent time (working on it) because it’s easier to win games 1-0 than it is 2-1, 3-2 or 4-3.

“We defended really well against Reading. It’s always an 11-man job but, at the moment, I suppose you could say it’s a 16-man job.

“But we defended very well because Reading are very good offensivel­y. They hardly had a clear-cut chance and that bodes well.

“We now need to keep the standard. We are very pleased with three clean sheets, but now we want four on Friday.”

Town haven’t kept four successive clean sheets since the League One season of 2010-11 under Lee Clark.

And they actually kept five on the trot in March and April 2011 en route to the play-offs.

The run started with a 1-0 win at Bristol Rovers and was followed by a 1-0 win at Brentford, a 0-0 draw with Swindon, a 3-0 home win against Notts County and a 2-0 win at Tranmere.

HUDDERSFIE­LD Town have one of their most talented players back in the mix against Luton tonight – and he’ll be determined to help cement Championsh­ip survival.

Dutch midfielder Juninho Bacuna has been kicking his heels while the Terriers have picked up five crucial points in the battle

 ??  ?? Juninho Bacuna sees red in the defeat at Forest
Danny Cowley
Juninho Bacuna sees red in the defeat at Forest Danny Cowley

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