Huddersfield Town

A change of formation and the introduction of substitutes Sean Scannell turned the game in Town’s favour after a poor first-half display, but after James Vaughan’s equaliser the Terriers spurned the chance to win when the same player struck the bar with a penalty kick.

“In the first-half we weren’t ourselves; we gave the ball away sloppily and caused our own downfall,” Anthony explained to htafc.com. “However, in the second-half we were a lot more direct in our passing. I don’t mean we were pumping long balls – rather we passed the ball forwards and got on the front foot. 

“Last year, when we were on the bad run, we were fragile and conceding one could turn into two, three and four quite quickly. This year we have a little bit of resilience about us and we know what to do when we have our backs against the ropes. We turned it around and came out swinging. 

“I thought we could have got all the points on the second-half performance. I thought Sean Scannell was exceptional when he came on and Adam Clayton had a good game. Adam Hammill needs his own ball sometimes; he’s a real enigma!

“We’re happy with that point, but it is tinged with a little bit of disappointment because we had the chance to win it through Vaughany’s penalty. We’ve all missed penalties – especially me – and I’ve just told him that he’ll win us more games than he’ll lose us this season. That is football. 

“I don’t think he’ll be seeing the penalty spot again though. That’s down to Gerrard’s expertise now!” he joked.

The Liverpudlian reserved special praise for teenager Holmes, who setup Vaughan’s equaliser on his League debut, but urged patience with the Academy graduate.

“Duane came on and gave the fans a good lift by showing what an exciting player he could be. There’s a lot of potential there, but I don’t think anybody should be getting carried away yet. Everyone involved with the Club will handle Duane with kid gloves and people like Steve Eyre, Mark Lillis and the Manager will do the right things by him.”

Gerrard was embroiled in a tough battle with the experienced Ricardo Fuller throughout the game and explained those kinds of battles are exactly what being a defender is all about:

“As a centre half you look to keep the strikers quiet and if you do you usually get the points. It got a little bit niggly towards the end, but I thought we had got the better of him throughout the game. Having said that, he did score their goal.”

Next up for Anthony and his teammates is a trip to Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium on Tuesday night: 

“We’ve got confidence. We’re unbeaten at home, which is handy, and now we’ll target another three points on Tuesday night. If we can’t manage that, we’ll at least look to keep our unbeaten run going.”