Simon unhappy with Preston performance
Huddersfield Town Manager Simon Grayson described himself as been “very disappointed” following his side’s exit from the Capital One Cup against Preston tonight.
Grayson’s men produced a very poor first half performance which left them trailing League 1 Preston 2-0 at the half-time interval and despite a small resurgence in the second 45; they never looked like threatening Thorsten Stuckmann in the Preston goal.
“I am very disappointed,” admitted Simon. “It was our first competitive game of the season and we are now out of the Capital One Cup – we picked a team that we felt could win.
“I am disappointed with a few individual performances tonight and the team as a collective. We will learn from every game and some of the new lads are still learning our way of football, but that is no excuse.
“We warned the players what to expect; Preston get in your faces, make it difficult for you, leave their feet in and work you hard and we couldn’t handle it. Once you give a team a two goal start it is very difficult to recover – it doesn’t matter who you are playing. In the second-half we passed the ball with a purpose, but lacked enough determination to stop the opposition.
“It is frustrating that the players haven’t put a marker down for the Cardiff game, but it will be more disappointing for them when they are not selected in the team on Friday. Everybody had an opportunity to stake a place in the Cardiff team tonight, but there weren’t enough good performances.
“If we play like tonight in the Championship we won’t do well. We are going to be playing against better players and we have to stand up and be counted. I have got a group of players who are exciting but they need to learn from each game – win, lose or draw.”
Jimmy Spencer was one of a few bright sparks for the Terriers and Simon was pleased with the 20 year-olds efforts.
“For a young boy I thought Jimmy lead the line superbly well on his own. We decided to give him an opportunity tonight and he didn’t do himself any harm – his performance was one of the bright notes from today.”
Danny Ward suffered an ankle knock early in the first-half and was forced off during the half-time interval.
“Danny took a knock but we were looking to make tactical changes at half-time to match them up. We will assess him over the next few days and see how he is ahead of Cardiff.”
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