Huddersfield Town lined up for its second game of pre-season with a trip to last season’s Sky Bet League Two champions Accrington Stanley.
David Wagner played two separate sides for the trip with the first eleven playing the first hour and the second side playing the remaining 30 minutes.
The game began at the Wham Stadium with the host coming out with a fast-paced attacking intent, getting the ball forward quickly only to find a stern Town defence halting proceedings before anything could materialise.
Stanley would have the first real chance of the game from a set-piece as a free-kick was swung in from the left and was headed wide by the tall figure of defender Ross Sykes.
Despite not having anything significant chance wise so far, Town was probing with some neat and accurate passing between the midfield and forward lines.
Town’s first dangerous chance came from Alex Pritchard. The attacking midfielder bounced a neat one-two off Sean Scannell before unleashing a powerful low driven shot on his left foot that the goalkeeper could only parry to deny Town the opener.
Accrington took the lead around the 20-minute mark after Billy Kee picked up a ricocheted deflection on the left and played a clever through ball to Kayden Jackson. The forward latched onto the pass and finished with a placed effort past Ben Hamer into the far corner.
Christopher Schindler then limped off on the half-hour mark having seemly felt something whilst stretching and was replaced by Michael Hefele.
Kayden Jackson doubled Stanley’s lead soon after as the forward capitalised on a short back pass from Florent Hadergjonaj and duly slotted home for his and Stanley’s second of the afternoon just before the break.
Town then made three pre-planned changes at the break with Ben Hamer, Jonathan Hogg and Sean Scannell being replaced by Joel Coleman, Adelhamid Sabiri and Lewis O’Brien.
The game saw little action within the first 15 minutes of the second-half before Town changed its side on the hour mark.
The changed Town side would muster a couple of chances shortly after as Steve Mounié headed a corner just over the bar just before Abdelhamid Sabiri fired a powerful effort into the side netting from an acute angle.
Matty Daly – who was playing in a deeper midfielder role – then played a neat ball through the lines that created a good shooting opportunity for Tom Ince. Turning on his left at the edge of the area, Ince powered his drive just wide of the mark.
With the game drawing to a close, Steve Mounié was penalised for a foul that handed Stanley with a free-kick in a dangerous position. Sean McConville stepped up and placed an accurate strike into the far corner with precision.
The final chance of the game fell for Town as Elias Kachunga drew a free-kick on the edge of the area. Chris Löwe stepped up, but his shot hit a defender on its route to goal before Mounié was adjudged to have fouled the keeper on the resulting rebound.
Town will next be in action on Wednesday 18 July when the Club travels out to Germany for its first game against Dynamo Dresden before the Essen Cup on Saturday and Darmstadt on the Sunday.
Town’s Staring Line-Up (4-2-3-1):
Ben Hamer; Jordan Williams, Christopher Schindler, Jon Stanković, Florent Hadergjonaj; Philip Billing, Jonathan Hogg (c); Sean Scannell, Alex Pritchard, Collin Quaner; Laurent Depoitre
Town’s Second Starting Line-Up: (4-2-3-1):
Joel Coleman; Chris Löwe, Terence Kongolo, Michael Hefele, Tommy Smith; Abdelhamid Sabiri, Matty Daly; Lewis O’Brien, Tom Ince, Elias Kachunga; Steve Mounié
Attendance: 1,653 (1,025 Huddersfield fans)
