Earlier this week, as optimism continued to tentatively grow following the vanquishing of Oxford United, Twitter algorithmically spewed out a YouTube link all the way back to January 1973.
In what appeared to be an Arctic blizzard, Town succumbed to Luton Town at home with a Geoff Hutt thunderbolt erased by an awful Dennis Clarke error and an unfortunate but bitterly inevitable own goal.
While the weather will have undoubtedly played a part, the crowd was thin and perishing and all were probably wondering where it all went wrong. From three successive 40,000 plus crowds just a year or two earlier, 3,871 witnessed the Hatters completing a double over the relegation-bound Terriers.
This was to be the season that Town relinquished their position as a proud 6-decade fixture in the top 2 divisions, and it was going to get even worse before the arrival of one Mick Buxton.
Town’s recent decline, from beating Manchester United in front of a full house to the crowd-dissolving, mid table banality of the 3rd tier hasn’t been quite as precipitate as the 70s, but a reversal of fortune is overdue.
Early signs are good, despite a slightly disappointing home draw against a strong Notts County side who defended very well after being gifted an equaliser and also had opportunities to hand Town a first defeat of the season.
A bright opening 20 minutes saw Town carry on from where they left off against Oxford, featuring an immediate return to the side of Humphreys after his deadline day loan signing in place of Collins and Fletcher replacing Radulovic.
Humphreys awareness and passing range will undoubtedly help Town’s progress this season and while it did seem a little odd to change the winning midweek patterns so quickly, Drury’s post match explanation, that he was protecting both Radulovic and Collins was valid and, for a club with Town’s recent injuries record, entirely understandable.
Time will tell which midfield partnerships will evolve most successfully, but Drury now has a wealth of options available to him and the strength in depth must be made to pay big rewards as the season progresses.
The early dominance brought its reward on 12 minutes when Ledson pounced on a poor ball out from County’s keeper and played a decisive ball forward to Fletcher who fed Sanchez Fernandes whose sublime reverse pass into the path of Harness allowed the midfielder to beat Belshaw at his near post with power.
Joe Taylor celebrated by smashing the ball into the net and breaking it, causing a 5 minute delay which, in retrospect, was far from welcome and disruptive to Town’s rhythm.
Although the home side had other good moments in the game, that first 12 minutes proved to be the high point of the performance which took a decisive turn when a rare mistake by Young, his first of the season, at a corner presented a tap in for the visitors to equalise.
It was a repeat of the defensive lapse in midweek which allowed Oxford an undeserved equaliser, but the Magpies capitalised upon their good fortune and by the end had not only thoroughly deserved their point but also caused problems for their hosts with some dangerous counter attacks.
Nevertheless, Town should have retaken the lead as another goalkeeping error left the visitors’ goal wide open, but neither Sanchez Fernandes nor Fletcher could capitalise with the former rushing his effort and the latter hitting a defender on the line, finding yet another obstacle to opening his Huddersfield Town account.
Retaking the lead at that point, replicating Tuesday’s events when a defensive lapse was quickly rectified, would probably have significantly changed the narrative of a hard fought game which had all the hallmarks of a deadlock after that spurned opportunity.
The more likeable of the 2 Nottingham based clubs grew into the game more from that point and put in a disciplined defensive performance which rarely relied upon last ditch interceptions or chaotic desperation.
Joe Taylor was subdued throughout and though Radulovic offered a better foil than Fletcher when he came on, the substitute had just one effort which was routinely saved.
The greatest threat came from the effervescent Sanchez Fernandes.
Already credited with an assist fully deserving of the award, he would have had another, less convincing, second when he poked the ball to Fletcher for his big chance and was a constant threat to Notts’ left flank in an otherwise slightly disappointing second half for the hosts.
County stood firm, however, and had chances of their own. Pouncing on an error by Balker, who had been rather exposed by a poor ball from Wallace, Town had Ledson to thank for blocking a goal bound shot with excellent anticipation.
Another Balker mess, when he slipped on the halfway line, briefly had the visitors 2 on 1. Wallace held the advance sufficiently to reduce the threat but it was the weakness of the effort which saved the day.
While Town dominated possession and applied constant pressure at times, including 4 fruitless corners in a row, there was an absence of guile in the final third and though the statistics produced at the end of the game were quite impressive , including 18 shots, the eye test wasn’t passed.
Still, 7 points from 9 from a Saturday/Tuesday/Saturday sequence is more than satisfactory and there is a sense that this squad, whose depth is yet to be fully exploited, has a genuinely good chance of providing the long awaited reversal of fortunes.
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