Chris gives his verdict on his first win at Town
.Chris Powell admitted it was a great feeling to secure his first win in charge of Huddersfield Town in today’s 2-1 Sky Bet Championship victory over Millwall
Nahki Wells’ brace secured a deserved win for Powell’s Terriers after a good second-half performance and Chris explained after the final whistle that his first win in charge couldn’t come quickly enough.
“Any Manager will tell you that when they go into a football club, they want to get a positive result. The way the Middlesbrough game ended wasn’t great; we followed that up with a clean sheet and a point, but last weekend was a big moment for me and we had a lot to sort out.
“One of those things was winning at home. That’s where the majority of your fans see you play and they want to see you win and put in a performance. I thought we did that today against a decent Millwall team. It’s a great feeling for everyone connected with Huddersfield Town.
“I’m pleased for the players, because they felt like they let everyone down last week. I told them that they had to apply themselves and give everything, because if they did their ability would come through.
“I thought the fans really warmed to the team today. As the game went on, I thought we showed everybody that we can compete. It’s important that we show everyone that we’re a team that can do well. We know we will have our ups and downs – now we want to build on this ‘up’.
“I feel a lot better than this time last Saturday. I take defeat personally because I care, but the good thing is this group of players care too. They are getting used to my ways and equally I’m getting used to them and learning how to get the best out of them in every game. “
Powell switched his side to a 3-5-2 formation for the game against the Lions; a formation he felt fit the players he had available:
“I thought we were good today. We changed one or two things after getting some food for thought in the last three games. I’m trying to put our players in positions they are really comfortable in. At the minute I want to have two strikers on the pitch as Nahki needs someone alongside him, so we might be a 3-5-2 team. I felt that was the right way to go this week.
“It was a good all-round performance; I’m really pleased. We didn’t have that devilment in the final third in the first-half, but I thought the players gave that to everyone in the second-half.
“The only disappointment for me was conceding the goal, because I want our ‘keeper and defence to keep a clean sheet.
“When it was 2-1 late in the second-half and you could you feel the tension, I thought we managed the game pretty well. With the pressure on, the players have come through; I thought they really stepped up.”
Powell was particularly pleased with some of the attacking performances from his side during the game.
“Harry Bunn earned his place in the team because of the way he played last week. He’s a striker and he did some good things today. We got Harry into the areas he likes to get into by asking him to drift out to the left and you can see he can do some damage out there.
“I thought Grant Holt and Sean Scannell came on and made a difference. I thought all the other lads were really good today. Grant worked really hard today and gave us a good centre forward’s performance for 25 minutes. His arrival can really help the team – especially Nahki. Grant wants to do well here and there is still a lot of mileage left in him.
“I’m particularly pleased for Nahki. He’s an opportunist, as he showed with his first goal, and he tucked his penalty away with aplomb.”
Powell can’t enjoy the victory for too long, with Wednesday night’s trip to high-flying Wolves on the horizon:
“I’ve told the players to savour the moment, but we can’t for too long because we have to think about Wolves away.
“We lost ‘Pelts’ and Jonathan Hogg today, so I’m hoping that’s not too serious. We have one or two lads coming back to fitness though; Martin Paterson was our 19th man today after scoring a couple of goals in the week.”
