Centre-forwards the key to Town pulling clear
KEEPING at least one of Fraizer Campbell and Steve Mounie fit is the key to Huddersfield Town finding some consistency in the relegation run-in, according to manager Danny Cowley.
The Terriers restarted the season with both centre-forwards injured. Cowley’s argument that being without an attacking focal point was crucial to defeats against Wigan Athletic and Nottingham Forest was given some credence by the performance when both returned at Birmingham City on Wednesday.
Campbell scored the second goal and substitute Mounie made the third in a 3-0 win but it was also the quality of the team’s play which was pleasing.
Cowley repeatedly said after the match the challenge was now to back that up with consistency, starting at home to Preston North End tomorrow, and when asked how that could be achieved, he pointed to his front players.
“We believe if we can keep our No 9s fit and on the pitch that will allow us to get some consistency,” he commented.
“I thought we had some consistency from Brentford at home (a 0-0 draw on January 18) onwards once we got the group together. We still had a couple of disappointing performances in that – Cardiff and Leeds.
“Other than those two games, I thought we showed a much better level of consistency throughout that period.
“We’ve got to try to now find that in six very important matches. It’s very tight at the bottom of the league and everybody is winning, which often happens when you get to this time of the season. We ultimately need to put all our energy and focus on us, which we’ll try to do.
Helped by an early penalty by Grant, Huddersfield played with a real belief which belied them having lost three consecutive games either side of the coronavirus lay-off, and it was not damaged when Lee Camp saved a second spot kick by Grant which would have doubled the lead.
“I think we will take confidence from Wednesday but we are not getting away with ourselves,” said Cowley. “Certainly the clean sheet was good, certainly the resilience when we didn’t score the second penalty was good and some of our attacking play was excellent. We scored three goals but probably could have scored more and that’s positive. But now we have to turn our thoughts towards Preston.”