Huddersfield Town

Grayson was more than pleased with the performance of his players on Friday night and wants them to continue to enjoy their football.

“I want the players to go out and enjoy their football and that is what they did against Cardiff,” said Simon. “We do need points though and it would be brilliant to get three against Forest tomorrow to set us up for the Burnley game on the weekend. 

“The shape of the team was excellent and we limited Cardiff to very few opportunities. We knew we would have to let them have possession for large parts but when we got the ball we used it well and created some good chances. Football is a results business and I suppose I would prefer us to play poorly and win, but we can take a lot of heart from the game on Friday.

“Before we started the game people may have been slightly nervous and apprehensive about playing Cardiff, but hopefully the performance will have shown the belief that I have in the players to be competitive.” 

At 3pm on Monday over 14,000 tickets had been sold for the clash (click HERE to buy now) and Simon wants his players to give the fans something to shout about.

“We have to show desire and run hard and put tackles in to help lift the atmosphere. The supporters have to be realistic though and understand that it will be tough for us. Nottingham Forest have just spent £2m on Simon Cox and they have a number of players within their squad who have played in the Premier League. There will be periods in games where we won’t have it our own way and the fans and players alike have to be patient.”

Simon’s chosen formation of 4-3-3 worked well at Cardiff and the manager hinted that he may use it again against Forest.

“I think you can play selective, counter attacking football at any level home or away. People may be believe that you should always play two strikers upfront at home, but sometimes you need three in midfield to make sure that you don’t get overrun. This season is not about us turning up and winning matches, we need to respect every team that we come up against. No disrespect to League 1 but we are up against far better teams and players this year where more of the focus will be on the other team rather than us. We have to focus on what we can do, but also the problems that they can cause us.”

To finish, Simon updated us on the current situation of his injured players.

“Danny Ward trained on Monday morning so we will see how he is tomorrow. Oscar Gobern didn’t train and Jordan Rhodes did a little bit of work with the physiotherapists. We don’t know if Jordan will be fit yet, we will see how he reacts to the work that he did with the physios. We will leave it to the last minute and if there are any doubts then he won’t play because I would rather him miss just one game rather than a couple of weeks.”