Month: August 2026

Sodden Mediocrity 

To win when you have played badly is, according to the cliche and, indeed, Martin Drury, a sign of a good team.

The flaw in this observation, just 3 games into the season, is that the level of the performance bar isn’t known and optimism is not a message to which the supporters of Huddersfield Town should be particularly receptive, given the failures of seasons past.

Cambridge United away in the tight constraints of a small stadium and pitch, on a soggy Bank Holiday weekend with a physically imposing opposition rather used to home success was never going to be a straightforward mission, but it was one that an aspiring club needed to meet.

Perhaps the only credit Town can take from a dismal display was to somehow conjure a thoroughly undeserved win, yet even this was tainted by a helping hand from some very generous officiating.

Almost certainly a result of the tactics employed by the hugely experienced Neil Harris, Murray Wallace spent far more time on the ball quarter backing than was comfortable and hardly conducive to creating threat.

Wallace, of course, carried out his principal duties very effectively and relished the battles against robust opponents; despite Drury’s protestations that the Scot is better on the ball than given credit for, it is unlikely to be a hill he’s prepared to die upon.

An almost entirely forgettable first half for both sides was littered with errors, bereft of goalscoring chances and rarely interrupted by notable incident. A slick surface didn’t help, but the complete absence of quality numbed the entertainment starved crowd to a stupor.

An early effort from Fletcher grazed the post from distance while the hosts caused a brief moment of concern when a back post header into a dangerous area caused Young to scramble the ball away.

The rest of the half was an amorphous blob of soggy ineptitude from both sides.

As the heavens opened again to herald the second half, it was the home side who gained ascendancy and they outplayed Town for the majority of it.

Young had to make a spectacular, if routine, save from a well struck free kick and with the momentum at their backs, Cambridge probed and tested the Terriers with nothing going the other way to relieve the pressure.

The hosts finally broke the flimsy deadlock when a long ball down the right channel saw a chase which appeared to have been won by Bowat only for him to fall under the pressure of a slight push which would ordinarily have been given as a foul – not just as a general rule but within this very match.

The rather marvellously named Ra’ess Bangura-Williams took full advantage of the referee’s leniency and set up Bradshaw to bundle home for a deserved lead.

The belated withdrawal of Fletcher, who should have been subbed at half time, for Radulovic (along with Collins replacing the ineffective Sway) paid dividends as Town struck back immediately with an equaliser of a quality completely out of place in the overall performance.

Taking advantage of a retreating home defender slicing an attempted clearance, Taylor got enough power into a shoulder pass to reach Radulovic who played in his teammate to smash an unlikely equaliser.

It was the Serbian sub who then made a good challenge just inside the opponent’s half which freed the otherwise subdued Sanchez Fernandes to play a lovely weighted pass in to Taylor’s path. 

The striker’s burst of pace forced a lunging tackle which, as disputable as it was geographically, prompted a joint decision from referee and linesman resulting in a penalty.

Thoroughly undeserved, hugely unfair on Cambridge and very welcome for the travelling support, Taylor despatched the spot kick for the win.

An excessive 9 minutes of injury time passed with just one scare when a loose ball from a corner was ballooned over the bar, and Town could celebrate their ill gotten gains.

With two home games upcoming, Drury has the chance to find his best midfield options which, for various reasons, has rather eluded him to date. The appearance of Collins for an unspectacular debut provides an important opportunity to do just that.

Equal parts encouraging and concerning, Huddersfield Town’s first away point of the season would have been welcomed before the game but frustrated at the final whistle.

Dominant in a first half which constantly threatened to blow the hosts away, a mixture of inaccurate finishing, occasional poor choices and a baffling absence of standard technology restricted the Terriers to a single-goal lead, which was likely to be fragile once MK Dons were reorganised by the canny Paul Warne at the interval.

Bright and lively from the off, the visitors looked several classes above their newly promoted opposition, whose reputation seemed somewhat overblown as they struggled to quell Town’s movement and control.

The opening goal came quickly when a decisive ball into the path of Taylor by Ledson allowed the stocky front man to burst in between two central defenders before hitting his shot with enough power to beat the oncoming keeper, who couldn’t get down quickly enough to fully block it.

Ledson’s decisive pass was the type of service Taylor has needed since his arrival, and, encouragingly, it wasn’t going to be the last invitation to score he would be given.

Matching their opposition’s physicality, Town’s grip on the first half rarely loosened, though an alarmingly unmarked Wintle should perhaps have made Young work a lot harder to save when an equaliser looked more likely.

Other than that scare, the visitors created chance after chance to add emphasis to their performance and justice to the scoreline.

Joe Taylor exploited space in behind following a good ball down the line by Ledson, but with support from Fletcher arriving too late, he could only force a relatively straightforward save at the near post from too wide an angle.

The striker should have doubled his tally shortly afterwards when Fletcher got the better of a Dons defender and fed Taylor free in the box. It took just a slightly poor touch to encourage MacGillivray to rush out and block to deny a deserved second for the visitors.

A tame effort by full debutant Sway, following good work down the left by Bowat, preceded the controversial moment when the absence of goal-line technology denied Joe Taylor a deserved brace when his thunderous effort from 30 yards bounced down off the crossbar for a Russian linesman moment.

Sadly, 60 years on from that controversy, and after the technological leaps and bounds since, the EFL continues to decree that one of the most effective and simplest measures to ensure fairness need not apply to the two bottom leagues, and neither the referee nor the assistant was in a position to judge. They needed, but didn’t get, the basic help available.

The elusive, and probably decisive, second goal should have arrived close to half-time when Young (excellent and assured again throughout) caught out MK Dons’ high line to find Fletcher, who, despite looking offside, had in fact timed his movement on the halfway line perfectly. Sadly, he was a little less precise with his finish, which came back off the post from his slightly mishit shot.

As half-time loomed, Town’s inability to cash in on their superiority began to look a little ominous; with a touch more composure and a sliver of luck, they would have been rightly out of sight after an impressive performance away from home.

Ironically, they were undone after a reasonably bright start to the second half when a very tame Bronkhurst cross was easily collected to launch a fatal Dons counter-attack.

Wiles, anonymous in the first half against his former club and in front of his legions of admirers in the away end, strolled purposefully at Town’s retreating rearguard before finding Collins on the left, who cut inside some far too passive defending by Balker and Bronkhurst before curling a good finish beyond Young, who stood no chance.

The worst fears had materialised as a revitalised home side rediscovered and correctly channelled their aggressive style, and spent the next 35 minutes severely testing their opponents’ resolve with their aerial threat, though it was a good move across the floor that led to their best chance, which Wiles dragged wide.

Despite being under a lot of pressure, and with some players visibly wilting, Town created one or two further opportunities to grab the win, and on the few occasions they could release Sanchez Fernandes, they still looked capable of turning the tables.

Yet another notable decision, or, rather, non-decision, went against the Terriers when a Dons player blocked a cross with his arm. The appeals from players and the visiting support who were very close to the incident were instinctive, immediate and insistent – usually a good sign that a case was to be made.

A defeat would have been harsh for either side, however, with MK Dons belatedly exhibiting the form which has made them reasonably well fancied for a good season and Town’s first-half dominance being unaccompanied by any good fortune.

However, Town come away from the game with several concerns: too many players looked exhausted past the hour mark (and, indeed, the number who slumped to the ground at the final whistle was noticeable); the finishing needs to improve considerably; and the intensity simply can’t slump for periods as it did here.

There were positives, though. The keeper looks mature way beyond his years and will be a major asset; Wallace deputised for Watmough with authority in a game which, admittedly, suited him very well; and the understanding between Fletcher and Taylor as a partnership seems to be developing.

Adding Collins as a midfield option when he is up to speed is likely to improve upon the current inhabitants — it is still disconcerting that we finished the game with Ledson, Kasumu and Harness, even if they didn’t do particularly badly on this occasion.

Another physical challenge awaits at Cambridge next week, where, surely, Town can begin to reverse their poor away form of the last couple of seasons.

Deja Vu once more

A convincing, sometimes thrilling, demolition of limited opposition launched Huddersfield Town’s latest attempt to escape the dreary confines of English football’s third tier.

Five debutants and a new permanent manager, if such an epithet can be ascribed to a position held by so many over such a few short years, evidenced significant change over the summer, with a couple of other new recruits to add in the coming weeks in Brierley and Archie Collins.

The quintet of new names delivered — either spectacularly in the case of Sanches Fernandes, with assured authority by the very promising new keeper, or with good to excellent contributions from the other three. 

While it was clear throughout that AFC Wimbledon, an admirable club of limited means, will struggle again this season, it was essential that the hosts delivered a performance to provide some belief after their faltering display against Preston brought no little dismay at familiar failings.

Within five minutes the restored Joe Taylor won possession with good pressing and a clever interception before slipping a ball past Wimbledon’s back line for Sanches Fernandes to prosper from a well-struck shot, beating a poor goalkeeping effort. 

The comfort of an early lead provided the platform for Town to dominate their visibly wilting opponents, whose foreboding extended to the comical when Bishop, a keeper who couldn’t have had a worse first few minutes of a season, crashed a clearance, under no pressure, into the back of one of his own colleagues midway up the pitch to concede a corner.

A lovely piece of skill in the box by the impressive Bronkhorst saw the debutant hit the post with a good effort, but it wasn’t long before the home side’s dominance brought more tangible reward when the ethereal Sanches Fernandes struck a beautiful, curling left-footed strike into the far corner. Within 20 minutes, the young Dutch debutant had laid down an exciting marker for his Huddersfield Town career with a verve and freedom so desperately absent from the team for too long.

But for an untimely slip after being set up by the hard-working Taylor again, he could have crowned an already impressive opening 30 minutes with a hat-trick, and, despite the stumble, nearly provided an assist before the ball was cleared — a clearance which led to the game’s next twist when a robust Bali Mumba challenge was deemed dangerous by the referee and saw Town down to 10 men. 

Replays suggest the dismissal was perhaps a little harsh, but the optics for the midfielder were not at all good, and on the immediate evidence available to the referee the recklessness warranted Mumba’s exclusion.

Naturally, the imbalance encouraged the visitors, who must have feared being overwhelmed, and they created a single moment of peril which required an excellent intervention from Balker to prevent the Terriers’ lead being halved before the break. After his best display in a Town shirt – a regrettably low bar which, in fairness, he comfortably cleared – it was a little unfortunate for Taylor that he was, rightly, sacrificed for Kasumu at half time.

Fletcher was the obvious forward to provide the necessary hold-up play, and his hour on the pitch was quietly impressive as his experience and awareness often kept the team moving and progressing. 

Few Town supporters would particularly welcome a midfield with a Kasumu, Ledson and Harness triumvirate and its multiple failures, but it was a completely rational move by Drury which, arguably, should’ve been made before half time, though it is a stretch to describe Wimbledon as dangerous in the closing 15 minutes of the first half, they were visibly lifted by the lifeline presented.

The visitors brought on Stockley for the second half, unsubtly signposting the approach they would adopt, challenging the aerial prowess of Town’s defence. It was a challenge which was, largely, met, though a better big striker than Stockley may have taken better advantage of one or two crosses which came his way. One flashing header he put wide was well won.

Wimbledon thought they had finally broken Town’s resistance from a corner, but Brown was not only offside, he impeded Young’s view and made an attempt to touch it in. It was as far from controversial as it could be.

With the opposition subdued – they had yet to have an effort on target – Town were not short of ambition, and a move of genuine quality brought a third goal to finally settle proceedings. 

The excellent Balker, whose form and fitness could be hugely impactful on Town’s season, linked with Bronkhorst down the right before deftly rounding a hapless Womble, streaking into the box and squaring for substitute Radulovic to scoop into the top of the net. It was exhilarating from the Surinamese defender and put the seal on an impressive opening-day performance from a club desperately in need of uplift.

The visitors finally achieved a shot on target shortly after seeing their revival hopes entirely disappear, but it only served to cap Young’s excellent, assured debut as he saved well down to his right and off the post.

The many positives of a good day at the Accu Stadium need to be tempered by the quality of the opposition, and by the fact that, red card aside, it was uncannily reminiscent of putting a hopeless Leyton Orient to the sword 12 months ago. 

Even so, the genuinely excellent debuts – particularly of Sanches Fernandes and Bronkhorst – the form of Balker and Whatmough, goalkeeping assurance and a hopefully high ceiling for this squad should not be dismissed.

Stiffer challenges lie immediately ahead in a division which looks tougher than last season, but you can only start well, which Town undoubtedly did.