Wednesday and Terriers locked in derby draw
STALEMATE: HUDDERSFIELD CRAWL TOWARDS CHAMPIONSHIP SAFETY WITH POINT AT HILLSBOROUGH
SO much has changed since these Yorkshire rivals previously convened at Hillsborough in front of over 32,000 spectators, with the only similarity being that they could again not be separated at the final whistle.
Famously, it took penalties to secure a winner some 1,154 days earlier on May 17, 2017 when Huddersfield Town held their nerve to book a Wembley date in the Championship play-off final to leave Sheffield Wednesday suitably shattered. The Owls’ shootout loss was the catalyst to the club’s fortunes taking a turn for the worse – and many would say they have never got over the events of that occasion.
This time around, it is Huddersfield who were seeking to avoid a punishing psychological blow that would be hard to cast off in their survival fight – even if Wednesdayites still harbour their own prescient fears if the club are punished by way of a points deduction should they be found guilty of breaching the English Football League’s Profit and Sustainability laws.
After their brief place in the sun in the Premier League, the warmth has gone and the wind is now cold for the Terriers, scrambling for their second-tier lives and desperate to avoid a return to League One for the first time since 2011-12.
If Town are to do that, they are inching their way towards it after registering their second successive goalless stalemate on their travels and third consecutive clean sheet away from the John Smith’s Stadium. On the debit side, the club’s goal drought stretched to over six hours.
Soon after joining Huddersfield, boss Danny Cowley said that the club’s battle for retain their divisional status would go right down to the wire, even during some relatively fruitful days of autumn, and this will have crystallised his view.
Moments after coming on in the 78th minute, Huddersfieldborn Fraizer Campbell had a heaven-sent chance to provide Town with some cherished daylight, but ballooned the ball over and the Terriers must continue to fret and bite their nails.
Wednesday had their moments, but after the flair and panache of Saturday, this was rather more standard in another home showing which will not live too long in the memory, albeit with more defensive concentration than their previous two home games when they shipped a collective total of six goals.
In keeping with several meetings between these sides in recent times, the action on the pitch was tight and attritional, as opposed to riveting.
For Cowley, the sight of his Huddersfield side at least taking the game to their opponents early on and showing more go forward and urgency in their quest to make things happen on the ball was at least a discernible improvement on their no-show against Luton.
The recalled Steve Mounie provided a physical outlet and Emile Smith Rowe floated around with intent, while there was hustle in the engine room.
So free-flowing at the weekend, Wednesday’s opening halfhour was eminently forgettable, with a few choice words at the first drinks interval from Monk helping to revive the hosts.
An unlikely outlet in Moses Odubajo was thrust into the spotlight in the attacking realm on two occasions and while one moment was a head-turner, the other was to be glossed over.
First, he surged clear after the Terriers momentarily switched off down their left and showed no lack of confidence before unleashing a goalbound shot, which was tipped away by Jonas Lossl.
A sublime pass from Josh Windass soon put the defender momentarily in the clear, but his decision-making was rather lamentable on this occasion as he tried to pick out a team-mate instead of going with his gut instincts
and unleashing a shot from a glorious position.
Lossl was called into action seconds before the interval to make a key finger-tip save to keep out Kadeem Harris’s goalbound curler, but it was a half in which Town were relatively comfortable without creating too much.
The opportunity they craved arrived on the restart and it arrived to the player they would have wanted it to in Karlan Grant.
The 18-goal forward latched onto Jonathan Hogg’s lofted pass and fired inches wide when well placed and by his standards, it was one that got away.
Town persisted and were started to look emboldened, with Monk sensing the danger and making a double change in a bid to change the narrative. Lossl continued his exemplary evening with a smart claim to grasp Massimo Luongo’s stinging low drive and despite Wednesday hinting at manufacturing a breakthrough and looking the more likely, it was far from vintage with it left to Campbell to spurn the chance to be the late hero after seizing on Harry Toffolo’s cracking centre.