Lees: Don’t waste this chance lads

TOM Lees has urged his younger Huddersfield Town team-mates to make the most of the opportunity they have to seize a place in the Championship top six - and perhaps go even further.

The 31-year-old centre-back looks set to make his 400th start in the second tier of English football against Queens Park Rangers tonight (5.30pm), but he has never managed to break into the Premier League.

He made the play-offs twice with Sheffield Wednesday, but lost in the final against Hull City in 2016 and was knocked out in the semi-finals by David Wagner’s Terriers the following year.

A young Lees did help Bury achieve automatic promotion out of League One when on loan from Leeds United in 2011 though, and as the fourth-oldest member of the current Town squad he has drawn from that experience to send a message to his team-mates not to get complacent at this critical point of the season by tricking themselves into thinking they’ll get plenty more cracks at the Premier League.

He said: “These things don’t come around every day. You never know when you might get this chance again.

“When you’re young - you mention I got that promotion with Bury - that was one of my first seasons and I didn’t really think much of it, it’s almost like ‘it’s normal, that’s what happens.’

“But it’s been a long time since my last go in the play-offs and you never know when you’ll get the chance.

“You might get this chance as a youngster and then never get them again later in your career.

“People like me and Hoggy, Fraizer, Wardy...we know that these chances are few and far between so you’ve just got to really take it while you have that opportunity.”

Lees added: “I don’t know if I’ll get the chance again - but we’ve not got into [the play-offs] yet, and that’d be a massive step, a massive achievement for the club this season. I don’t think anybody expected that.

“But we’re just really, really, really determined now to make sure we do it and that we finish the season well.

“At the moment we’re in a position where we’re not chasing, which is really good. If we can stay in that position where we’re not chasing, I think that’s the key.”

QPR have dropped down the table in recent weeks, but head coach Carlos Corberan knows tonight’s clash at the John Smith’s Stadium won’t be an easy one.

“I remember perfectly that we lost against QPR in London, which was a demanding game, and this is going to be the same,” he said.

“Many of the same players will play that did when we lost to them, so we will have to be at our best.

“You need the right mentality to face each opponent, and we will have the correct mentality to face QPR.

“We are always fully motivated to get three points.

“For me it’s always important to arrive at a level where you can compete in the game, which is why I always insist that we are the most competitive team that we can be.

“The players have shown a good ability to adapt.

“We have had good games with three or four at the back, and the confidence the squad have means that their mentality is more important than the shapes we play, because without the mentality the organisation is nothing.”