Boss discusses defeat to the Rams
- Chris Powell discusses defeat to Derby County
- Huddersfield Town Manager compares the two clubs
- Boss gives update on Sean Scannell's injury
Huddersfield Town Manager Chris Powell gave his thoughts on today’s 2-1 home defeat at the hands of Derby County after the final whistle:
“I think we played against one of the sides that will be up there at the end of the season. After all the games this week, I suppose they are one of the last opponents you’d want to face given how they’re performing and where they’re at.
“We went a goal down and picked ourselves up. The players got themselves back in the game and we more than matched them in the first half.
“However, we made a big mistake at the start of the second half. We should have cleared our lines and we were punished by one of the strikes of the season; he’s a good technician, George Thorne.
“After that we were chasing it and I felt we didn’t have enough with regards to breaking them down. I only think Scott Carson made a couple of saves, whereas Jed Steer made three outstanding saves to keep us in it.
“When we did get in the final third our best chance was a shot past the near post and if you hit it across goal, the ‘keeper sometimes parries it out.
“I wanted to take something from today after taking four points in the week. I really wanted to take three points today and if that wasn’t going to happen, to get something. We felt we could have done before the game.
“Some of our players were dead on their feet right at the end because they have put in such a huge amount of effort.”
Chris continued:
“It was a tough game for us at the end of a tough week after the games against Ipswich and MK Dons. There were spells where we more than matched them, but to be honest there were other times where their class showed. That’s something we have to deal with and aspire to get to.
“You look at the balance of the 18s and we are a bit threadbare at the moment with regards to our numbers. We matched them for effort, but as we stand here now they have more quality than us, for sure.
“Derby has an embarrassment of riches. Obviously they have someone we know well in Jacob Butterfield alongside the likes of Bradley Johnson and one of the best strikers in the league in Chris Martin. If he goes off, they bring on Darren Bent!
“At the minute I just have Ishmael (Miller) and Nahki (Wells) and then I have to bring on Flo. He’s a good talent, but there’s the gulf; it’s there for everyone to see. I’m not moaning – this is what this club is. We will battle and give our best in every game.
“We made an early change with Sean (Scannell) and then we tried to get Jamie on the pitch. After that, all we have is a young lad (Flo Bojaj) to come on who made a good impression the other day on a big stage. That is asking a lot, but you put them on because you never know what will happen.
“If we were like Derby, we’d know we have to be in the upper reaches with what we have. We’ve been in the Championship for three years now and each and every year gets tougher for us.
“We haven’t really spent money – we’ve spent it on young Jordy (Hiwula) and Kyle Dempsey, who are ones for the future. You need players who can cope at this level. It’s hard.
“Sometimes you pay for quality and what we try and do is coach the quality as much as we can into what we have. Sometimes you will need to bring in players who will improve your squad and your team and we’re just not in a position to match anyone like Derby or Wolves, who go out and spend £2 million on Benik Afobe. Hull City and QPR have just come down and spend big on players.
“They’re in our league and we’re there on merit. We’re going to take some knocks, but we’ll have some highs as well. That’s how I suppose it has always been here since we got out of League 1.”
On Sean Scannell, who was substituted through injury midway through the first half, Chris concluded:
“We’ll find out more on him in the next 48 hours. He hurt his hamstring last week, but this looks like the other one! We’ll see what it’s like when it settles down.”
