Huddersfield Town

Town’s last away day was arguably its best result of the season to date when it beat Blackpool 3-1. Going into the international break Simon told htafc.com that it is important the team enters it with a positive result at Birmingham

“It is very important that we bounce back. The Championship is a very tough division and we have seen some really strange results over the last couple of weeks,” said Simon. 

“I saw a statistic recently that said in the last 36 Championship games there has only been five home wins. Teams such as Hull were going well and lost two games on the trot whereas Peterborough, who had started poorly, went and won their last two games. You can never get too down in the dumps when you lose a couple of games; our training over the past couple of days has been very positive and we will be positive in our approach ahead of the weekend.”

He continued: “We are looking forward to going to Birmingham. St Andrews is a fantastic arena to play football in and we have done well on the road so far this season. It is important that we play from the shape of the team on Saturday, be resilient when we are under pressure and then implement our own game when we have the opportunity.”

Reflecting on Tuesday night’s defeat Simon said his players didn’t do themselves justice against one of the favourites for the league.

“I was frustrated more than anything else on Tuesday night. You want to do yourself justice in every game that you play, but we didn’t do that against Leicester.

“It was a great opportunity to get back to winning ways, but we were just lacking something. We have dusted ourselves down and are ready to go for the weekend. I won’t make too many drastic changes for the sake of it, but when you lose two games on the bounce the players who aren’t in the team rightly think they have a chance. It is my decision to pick the right squad to beat Birmingham; we have a few players who will be available following injury and suspension and one or two who have waited patiently.”

Town has missed the presence of striker James Vaughan over the past two games, but Grayson was still unsure of his availability for the clash. 

“James’ injury is moving along nicely and he is currently working with the physio, but he is still going to be touch and go for the weekend, like Adam Hammill will be,” said Simon. “The Birmingham game might come too quickly for the pair, but then again you never know. It won’t be too much longer until they are both back in action; if they don’t make the Birmingham game we are confident that they will be ready for Wolves. 

“We have also missed Joel Lynch at the back for the qualities that he brings into the team. Other players have been given a chance in the team as a result of our injuries and suspensions and they have done well.” 

He added: “James’ injury isn’t a reoccurrence of any previous injury, it is a groin strain that he picked up and played through before it became too painful. He hadn’t missed a training session before picking up the niggle and we want him back as quickly as possible because he is a huge asset to us.”