THE VERDICT: TOWN 1 COVENTRY 1 Town safe, but now the work has to really start
TOWN RATED FOURTH SEASON OF FIGHTING AGAINST RELEGATION WOULD NOT BE ACCEPTABLE FROM THE TERRIERS
EXCELLENT low stop to push the ball onto the post straight after the restart, and another to deny Viktor Gyokeres again a few minutes later. Nothing he could do about the goal because of the deflection ..................................................
HAD the right ideas, particularly when it came to crossfield balls across to Josh Koroma on the left wing, but execution just slightly off .....................
VERY lucky not to be punished for a clear handball that would have given Coventry a penalty just before the break and was beaten too easily shortly after half-time ...........................
STARTED the game looking assured but had a tough spell just after the break after Coventry came out looking keen and tired badly as the game wore on ...............................................................
STAYED back more than we are used to seeing and often slotted in to help Town make up a back three. Tried to make up for losing the ball and ended up just going out of position as Coventry went ahead .........................................................
THERE is an incredible story to be told at the bottom of the Championship next weekend with three sides playing for their futures in the division – but Huddersfield Town will be not be part of that story. Good.
For the second season in a row, the Terriers have secured their safety in the penultimate game of the campaign, but there was little dramatic about Saturday’s draw with Coventry at the John Smith’s Stadium despite the Town goal once again coming from a substitute around 10 minutes from time.
To their credit, the Terriers put in a largely decent performance bar a 25-minute spell after the break during which Coventry took a deserved lead through a wickedly-deflected shot.
Town were the better side throughout much of the rest of the game, though, and Danny Ward’s well-taken strike for his first goal of the season – at long last – was no less than the
Terriers either.
As we half-expected, results elsewhere made this game a retrospective dead rubber. But it’s an important formality to tick off nonetheless, and despite Carlos Corberan’s post-match insistence that his side will remain determined to reach their 50-point target, it’s hard not to think he was just kidding himself.
If anything, Town need to make sure this season means absolutely nothing – and that means switching their full attention to a massive summer ahead.
At this stage of the campaign we were never going to learn anything new about this side. We know their considerable weaknesses that need addressing, as another cheap goal conceded after a bit of a defensive shambles made clear.
And we also know that despite everything, they are still not a million miles away from having the germ of something that looks like it could work with better
had
earned
Wilson, Rose (Pask, 70), McFadzean, Hyam, Dabo (Burroughs, 59), Hamer (Eccles, 70), James, McCallum, O’Hare, Gyokeres, Walker (Shipley, 45). Subs: Marosi, Allen, Biamou, Bakayoko, Tavares.
players and a summer’s worth of work on the training ground.
We don’t need to point out that’s easier said than done, because the last four months have made the size of that task abundantly clear.
Town most assuredly need a couple of first-choice players to come in and offer more quality, particularly at centre-back and in central midfield. But more than anything else, what they need is depth.
The drop-off from first XI to subs’ bench is too severe at the