Chris reviews the goalless draw with Sheff Wed
Huddersfield Town Manager Chris Powell had to be satisfied with a point from today’s Yorkshire derby at home to Sheffield Wednesday.
Neither side could snatch a win by converting an opportunity, particularly in the second 45 minutes.
“I felt we needed a bit more intensity in the first-half. We’d lost our last two games and they have been on a run where they haven’t picked up any wins, so I suppose there was a little bit of caginess. There were chances for both teams though.
“There was a bit more intent to the second-half. We had one or two really good chances, but equally so did they; Joe Murphy made a great save towards the end. Players made some really brave blocks on both sides.
“I suppose it’s a point in the right direction for us given what’s happened recently, but you want to win games like this at home, against a side from just down the road. I’ve got mixed emotions; the clean sheet and the fact we didn’t lose are the only comforts I can take.
“Maybe, in the past, we would have conceded today. I didn’t enjoy conceding six goals in our last two games at all, so I suppose an exciting 0-0 is another point on board.”
Joe Murphy made his first League start for the Terriers with Alex Smithies suffering with a back spasm and performed admirably, as Chris explained:
“It looked like he was in the WWE given how many times he clashed with Stevie May today – it was ridiculous! Joe looked battered and bruised at half-time, but he didn’t want to come off because he knew this was an opportunity to prove to everyone how capable he is.
“I thought his save from Drenthe right at the end was a match-saver. In itself, it earned us a point today. I’m really pleased he got a clean sheet on his first League start for us today.”
Powell opted for a front three of Bunn, Holt and Scannell once again today, as he explained:
“I’m never cautious - especially at home, as we’ve seen from the way we’ve been playing at home. We didn’t settle for a point; I wanted to win the game. That’s why Nahki came on after an hour. Sadly for our fans, we couldn’t do that.
“The front three in particular have been excellent and today I was looking for the likes of Conor Coady and Jacob Butterfield to break forward, with Diego (Poyet) naturally sitting behind them. I thought he made a decent debut today; he didn’t give the ball away much.
“We also wanted to get Tommy Smith and Paul Dixon forward too. Tommy got into one great position in the first-half, but the chance was well defended by them.
“Today I thought they did a bit of a job on Harry (Bunn) and I suppose the battle of the day was between Sean Scannell and (Jeremy) Helan, which probably ended 50-50. ‘Scanz’ got in a couple of times, but when he did Helan covered well.
“We knew there might be an opportunity to introduce Nahki (Wells) later on and that did happen. He had two or three opportunities, including one outstanding one that (Kieren) Westwood saved.”
The draw extends Town’s unbeaten home run to six games – something that Powell is pleased with.
“You have to make your home a bit of a fortress, because it is harder on the road – we all know that. After the winless run at home before I arrived, we’ve started to pick wins and clean sheets up. That’s important when the majority of your fans see you there. We always look to win here, but if you can’t you have to make sure you come away with something – a bit like today.
“The Championship is tough. I suppose people might look at Sheffield Wednesday coming here on the back of a winless run, but they came here and gave us a test. We’ve coped with that, but equally we’d like to turn games like this into wins.
“Now we move on to Bolton next weekend.”
