David pleased with his team's performance
- David Wagner reviews 1-0 defeat by Ipswich Town
- Head Coach pleased by his team's performance
- Wagner gives injury update on Jonathan Hogg
David Wagner was hurt by Town’s 1-0 reversal at the hands of Ipswich Town this afternoon because the result didn’t match his side’s performance.
The Terriers should have been ahead by the time Ben Pringle struck the only goal of the game in the 19th minute and spurned further chances to pull level in each half.
“On one side, it was nice to see. I enjoyed the game, especially the first half. On the other side, it hurts that we have got this result for our performance,” David explained to htafc.com.
“I thought the first half was great; excellent; fantastic. We only missed our goals. It was very important that we got back to our identity after Tuesday night and there’s no doubt we performed well. We had speed, we were strong and we built up our fighting zone whilst creating chances, having shots and one-on-one opportunities with their goalkeeper.
“The second half was maybe only average, but having nearly 70% ball possession and 21 shots compared to the opponent’s six says everything about how this game was. The boys tried everything, which was good.
“Our opponent did exactly what we expected and how we played against them – creating chances and defending against this physical, direct game – worked. We were strong in midfield and got close to them on the wings to stop them centring the ball.
“We made one small mistake in defence and a few in our offence and that brought the result of this game. We’ve talked about how good Nahki Wells has been recently but today he couldn’t take two chances, whilst Joel (Lynch) has played very well but made one mistake.
“Sometimes in this game you don’t get what you normally deserve for a performance and we have to accept this result. We always try to separate the performance from the result and although the result wasn’t good, the performance was.
“This is something we have to work on so we can get more points than we have in the past. We must make sure we take the chances if they come, because then the games will go in the other direction.
“We have to learn from this game, as it is not the first time I’ve appreciated our performance and the result has hurt. We have to make sure we are consistent in our performance – which we mostly are – and ensure we are more clinical in the future.
“I think tomorrow I could be happier about what we did today than I am now, but pain sometimes helps you develop.”
David finished by commenting on Jonathan Hogg, who was forced off in the 79th minute with a knee problem.
“For me, this is worse than the result. It seems to be Hoggy’s medial ligament, which means he will be out for eight weeks. We will scan him on Monday and get a clear answer in the evening.
“Lynchy had some problems with his hamstring as well, so we’ll have to see what happens during the week. It could be that we’re missing those two players, plus Phil Billing is out (suspension).
“However, at the moment I don’t think we have a big problem. Today our rotation system worked again and we saw a good performance from the squad, so we can trust and believe in all of our players. It might not be the easiest few days, but we will find a solution.”
