First Team Coach delighted with Charlton display
Huddersfield Town First Team Coach Ian Miller was delighted with the response shown by the Terriers following the heavy New Year's Day defeat at Leicester.
The victory at the Valley ends a run of ten games without a win for the Terriers, who play Birmingham next on January 12.
“We defended manfully especially after the poor showing against Leicester last week,” said Miller. “There was a determination in the players to put right the wrongs of New Year’s Day. There are ways to lose football matches and we went out with a whimper against Leicester, it was unacceptable.
“In a nutshell we were a team today. Some of the players have lost form, but today they played as a team. We had a number of good individual performances as well and you need that when you play in the Championship because it is an unforgiving league.”
Jermaine Beckford scored the winner for Town in the 11th minute after a brilliant assist from midfielder Adam Clayton.
“Jermaine’s goal epitomises the type of player that he is,” explained Miller. “He is a little bit like Jordan Rhodes in that his link up play is sometimes a little bit wayward, but his movement is fantastic. We haven’t provided him with the service over the last couple of weeks but I thought we did that today. There was lots of good movement in attack and I thought that Jermaine and James (Vaughan) linked up very well.”
Jermaine’s strike partner James Vaughan also put in a great shift for the Terriers.
“James plays with an edge and if he doesn’t, he isn’t the same player. He runs a thin line every game but his work rate is superb and he also showed that he is lively in front of goal with his shot in the first half. They are a potent partnership and it is up to us as coaching staff and the players to make sure that they get the service.”
The sending off of Dorian Dervite for Charlton early in the second-half gave Town the advantage, but at times they struggled to fully deal with their npower Championship rivals.
“The sending off allowed them to go gung-ho and play with a lot more freedom. When you haven’t won for a few games you get a little bit anxious and if we had a couple of wins behind us I am sure that we would have put them to the sword. We were a little bit up tight and in the last ten minutes we made a few bad decisions, but we defended manfully – and that wasn’t just the back four, all over the pitch we made it hard for them.”
Simon Grayson made five changes today and Miller was pleased with the impact they made.
“The Manager has a simple philosophy: if you have the shirt and play well, you will keep it. That is what we have preached since we arrived at the Club; football is a squad game. I thought there was a steeliness about the players today.”
As a result of injuries Simon handed a place on the bench to development player Tom Smith and Miller explained the reasoning behind his promotion.
"He is a young player who Steve Eyre brought in to be a part of his development team; he knew him from his time at Manchester City. He has impressed in the development games and when he has trained with us he hasn’t looked out of place."
