Huddersfield Town

The centre back was one of the star performers during Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Birmingham City and he credited the upturn in performance to the intensity of the side following the final whistle.

“The week we had was very disappointing; we all let ourselves down. The only thing we could do going into Saturday was stay positive and work hard,” Joel explained, referencing the three defeats in eight days Town recently suffered.

“We don’t just forget about poor performances; they hurt everyone. Everyone was disappointed with how the previous three games went, but we had a really good week of training going into the game. 

“We did that at Birmingham and I thought we put in a good performance; we deserved to win. It was much better and you could see the effort the lads put in. Birmingham kept coming at us, but I thought we were pretty disciplined in the way we defended. 

“I think our fans were a lot happier this weekend, because they got the commitment they want to see. If we show that every week, we won’t go far wrong.”

Joel was particularly pleased for his teammate Joe Lolley, who scored his first league goal of the season in this weekend’s stalemate.

“All the lads love Joe; everyone wants him to do really well, as he’s a great lad. He’s got a lot of talent. He’s telling everyone here he’s started three games and scored twice, so he’s doing well at the minute! It’s great that he got on the score-sheet on Saturday – particularly as a Villa fan!”

Joel came as close to anyone to winning the game for Town at St. Andrew’s, only to see a late first-half header brilliantly saved by opposing goalkeeper Darren Randolph. 

Lynch continues: “Obviously I try and get in the box and score to help the team, but I was denied by a good save from the ‘keeper on Saturday. That was unfortunate really, but on another day it’ll go in.” 

Now Joel wants the team to maintain the levels it displayed at the weekend when Norwich City visits the John Smith’s Stadium on Tuesday night.

He explained: “We’ll take the away point and move onto Norwich on Tuesday. We’ve got to progress, because we haven’t backed results up enough in a very up and down season. Everyone is happy after Saturday’s performance, but now we need to take it into the next game. 

“We go into the game focussed on maintaining our level of performance, because we cannot keep being so up and down. When we play with intensity and commitment we always do well. 

“The last home game against Rotherham was one of the worst performances we’ve put in all season, but now we need to be positive going into Tuesday. It’ll be good to be back home and we’ll be working as hard as we can to get the crowd behind us and, ultimately, the points. 

“This season is not over for us; we cannot just give up and take it easy. We need to keep playing for ourselves and all the good people at the Club, including the fans. If we’re winning games, everyone is happy.”