By Jack Watson
That was more like it. Hull City comfortably triumphed over Huddersfield Town 1-0 and they are very lucky that we did not score more. We did not put a foot wrong in this game and seemed up to the mark to face a team who are in the relegation zone. Where was this last week against West Brom? I know they are better than Huddersfield; however, we controlled the game just like we did in this one, yet we could not create any dangerous opportunities. It’s a shame; we could be in the top six heading into the International break.
Nonetheless, it was great to win another game at home, which, hopefully, we can keep up as we cannot rely on beating teams on the road. The Terriers came into this game with two draws, two loses and one win in their previous five games, which was also their only win in 10. For us, we have drawn one, won two and lost two in our previous five league matches. Notwithstanding our positions in the league, we have not beat Huddersfield since 2015 when we won 2-0 at home. Since, they have beaten us or drawn. It was good to break that and it would have been embarrassing if we didn’t.
Rosenior did not make any changes to the starting eleven, save for Jaden Philogene, who missed our clash against The Baggies last week, replacing Adama Traore, who picked up an injury in that game. That meant our line-up was as follows; Ryan Allsop between the sticks; Lewie Coyle, Alfie Jones, Sean McLoughlin and Jacob Greaves as the back line; Jean Seri, Tyler Morton and Ozan Tufan in the middle and Scott Twine, Jaden Philogene and Liam Delap as the front three. We did have a couple of players out in this game; however, we still had a strong team and even James Furlong was named on the bench; he did not get played, though. Also, Ozan Tufan seems to have recovered massively and put in a great shift.
In the first period we dominated the game and the visitors were well out of the contest. They were happy to soak up the pressure, sit back and park the bus–they had no plan. Again, in the early stages, we had all the possession, but we could not create anything to worry the Town goalkeeper, Lee Nicholls. We had a flurry of corners, which came to nothing. Incredibly, it was the visitors who had the first real chance; in the 29th minute, they had a little spell, in which they made an attack, which ended when Sorba Thomas cut in from the left before hitting a low one from range, which went wide of the right post.
That was their only chance and after, our time came to put our foot on the gas. Philogene received the ball on the left and let rip outside the edge of the box, but Nicholls did well to parry the ball for a corner. This woke the MKM up and just before the end of the half, we had another excellent chance to take the lead; similar to Philogene’s effort, Jean Seri flashed one wide from a distance, while Ozan Tufan was denied from 20-yards out.
A strong finish to the half, but it ended goalless, even though we had 81% possession!
The second half mirrored that of the first; Huddersfield not doing anything and us controlling the ball well. It was not until the 70th minute when the half got exciting, before that, we did not do much with the ball. It got quite frustrating to watch, however, they eventually made up for it. In the 70th minute, Tyler Morton worked incredibly on the right, before smartly tipping the ball towards Tufan, who put the ball wide and collided with the keeper.
Then, Tufan turned provider when he made a great cross from the right towards an onrushing Delap, who won the header, but smashed it against the crossbar, before a scramble in the box resulted in a free-kick to the opposition. But, the striker did not lose hope and continued to test Huddersfield’s strong defence. It paid off exceptionally as in the 92nd minute he put us in front. Vinagre did well on the left to beat his men and swing in a threatening ball towards Philogene, who neatly tapped it to Delap and he slotted it home. Lovely.
This game had some brilliant moments and we should have scored a lot more: we had 20 shots to their two; 76% possession; 9 corners and completed 753 passes compared with their 239. It is safe to say, Huddersfield have to be one of the worst teams to come to our stadium this season. Fortunately, we have similar teams coming up and if we can embed this performance into these fixtures, we should have no trouble with winning them all. After the break, we have Swansea away, which I won’t be going to. Let’s keep pushing.
