Danny Cowley on defeat to Stoke
- Danny Cowley reviews Stoke loss
- Town Manager looks back on performance
- Watch the full interview now on #HTTV
Huddersfield Town Manager Danny Cowley was frustrated with his side’s performance following the 5-2 defeat to Stoke City at the John Smith’s Stadium.
A Steve Mounié header and a Danny Batth own goal had put Town 2-1 up early in the second half following Sam Vokes’ early opener, but the Potters ran away with the game in the final 35 minutes, courtesy of a brace from Tyrese Campbell and goals from Nick Powell and Lee Gregory.
“It was a car crash of a performance. We didn’t play well first half, we were well off it physically, off a bit mentally, it looked a bridge too far for the group,” he said.
“We tried to change it, we spoke at half-time, we swapped the wide players which I thought helped.
“It’s disappointing and hard to take but we have to suck it up, look at ourselves in the mirror. I don’t think any of us will sleep well on the back of that performance.”
Having gone 2-1 up, the visitors found the net four times in the second half to turn the game around and run out comfortable winners. Danny insists there can be no excuses for the result.
“I don’t want to blame referees because we can’t affect referees and it would be really weak of us to do that because the performance was well short.
“They got 3-2 up and we had to start to chase the game and when you do that you leave yourself open and vulnerable and we ended up conceding the fourth (goal) and the fifth – it’s hard to take.”
Prior to the game, Town had taken 10 points from the last 15 available. Danny was disappointed not to round it off with a positive result from the New Year’s Day encounter.
“We take one step forward and then we take one step back. It had the potential to be a really good Christmas period and if we’d have found a way to win today, I’d have been really pleased with the work we’d done.
“If we’re honest, we just haven’t got enough senior players. We’re just short, we’re really short. When the games come thick and fast as they do, it catches up with you. It caught up with us today.
“When you’ve only got 13 or 14 senior players, you can’t move it around. You’ve got injuries within that anyway and when you do move it around, you’ve got no balance to your team. It’s not easy by any stretch of the imagination.
“But this is what we inherited. This is what we find, and we have to try now. We’ve got a transfer window that is open, and we’ve got to work hard to try and get some balance in the group to help us for the second half of the season.”
You can watch Danny’s full interview now on #HTTV.
