Tommy happy to return, but disappointed with result
Tommy Smith was delighted to be back from his injury to play 90 minutes against Wolves on Tuesday night – but disappointed with the outcome of the game.
The defender played his first game since the injury scare that saw him airlifted to hospital by the Yorkshire Air Ambulance after the recent Yorkshire derby against Leeds, but couldn’t prevent the Terriers from falling to a 4-1 defeat.
“I think we created a lot of chances, but we didn’t take them; that was our downfall. They took their chances and we didn’t, so ultimately we paid the price,” Tommy told htafc.com after the full-time whistle.
“I thought Wolves played like we did at Molineux earlier this season. On that night we counter-attacked them very effectively and won 3-1, but they’ve come to our ground and done the same.
“We had the majority of possession and created more chances, so I don’t think it was a 4-1 game; I don’t think they were that much better than us. Sometimes these things happen; now we have to look to bounce back on Saturday and make amends.”
Having sat out the weekend win at Millwall, Tommy was pleased to be back out on the pitch contributing to the team:
“It was terrible not being involved at Millwall – I was sat at home watching the scores coming through on Sky Sports and it was horrible. We’re a very close-knit bunch here and I was desperate for the lads to do well. It was nerve-racking, but they got the result.
“I felt fine in myself, but the protocol for an injury like mine is one week and that’s absolutely the right thing. It did make it difficult to be sat at home though, as I felt like I could make a contribution.
“I felt fine. I told the manager that I was desperate to play if he needed me, so I was delighted to start. Obviously I’m disappointed with the result, but delighted to be back in the fold. Hopefully I can keep playing and push on.”
Just as they have done in recent weeks, the task for Town’s players is to respond immediately from defeat when they make the long journey to play at AFC Bournemouth on Saturday.
Tommy continued: “As the manager has said, we’ve shown we can bounce back after defeats. After we lost to Leeds the other week we bounced back and beat Millwall, so now we have to look to do the same thing on Saturday.
“Our opening day defeat to Bournemouth feels like a long time ago; the season has gone quickly. Our team that lost that day is a lot different now; we have different personnel, a different manager, a different way of playing and there’s a lot more steel about us. We’ll definitely look to put on a better performance than we did then.
“Throughout the season our home form has been pretty good – barring the last two games – and the away form has been the problem, but we go into Saturday with back to back wins on the road and we’ll look to continue that at Bournemouth.”
Get SMITH 27 on the back of a replica shirt now - click HERE!
