Huddersfield Town

Huddersfield Town Manager Mark Robins was pleased with what he saw from his side in tonight’s 1-0 pre-season victory over Sheffield United at Bramall Lane.

“It was a good workout, because Nigel (Clough) has his team organised and they have some good players in there; they were semi-finalists in the FA Cup this year. Bramall Lane is always a difficult place to come too,” Mark explained.

“For the first 15 to 20 minutes we struggled to cope with their threat, but we left them to it and they sorted themselves out through good communication, which was great to see. We managed to get a foothold in the game and from thereon in we looked a threat all night.

“There was good movement, awareness, talking and we worked hard, which is exactly what you want from a pre-season workout. There were some good performances.”

The game featured an impressive cameo performance from today’s loan signing Radoslaw Majewski

“Everyone has just seen a cameo of what Radi can do. He’s still in pre-season, but if we can keep him fit he can play. He will light the blue touch paper for us, as we’ve just seen. He won’t do that all the time – there will be ups and downs – but what he does do is bring his teammates to life as well. He links the play between the forwards and midfield and carries a goal threat too. 

“For our goal, he linked up pretty well with Adam Hammill; it was a good, intricate bit of passing. It was nice to get the goal, as we had created quite a few opportunities and openings and not taken any.”

Mark was also particularly happy with the defensive performance this evening.

“I’m absolutely made up with the clean sheet as well. We were good, especially as we had a youngster in there in Crooksy (Matt Crooks). Everyone will know him as a midfield player, but I’ve always liked him at the back; I think he’s better there. We’ve given him the opportunity and he needs to learn the role, but we think he might have a chance there. He has a few strings to his bow and we’re not putting pressure on him; we’ll wait for him and give him time.”

Just as the Manager explained after Saturday’s defeat at Scunthorpe, Robins reemphasized that one pre-season result shouldn’t be exaggerated at this stage:

“We haven’t taken our foot off the gas in training – we’re getting as much out of them as we can. Perhaps that told on Saturday, but in the end pre-season is all about fitness. We’re 11 days from the season and that’s when the result matters. We’re trying to keep as many of them on the pitch as we can and it’s good that we’ve got through the game.

“I’m glad that we’ve played well tonight though, as we had some supporters here. You can’t read too much into results though.”

Mark finished off by giving positive news on Town’s four missing players this evening; Anthony Gerrard, James Vaughan, Danny Ward and Oscar Gobern.

“They are back on the grass and running, so hopefully we can have them back into the group as quickly as we can. They look like they’re getting ever closer, which is brilliant as it thickens up the squad a little bit. We need everybody fighting fit.”