Huddersfield Town 1 Birmingham City 3: Town chief Robins left to fume as Clark makes triumphant return

Keith Southern, stand-in captain following an early injury that forced Peter Clarke out of the action, was equally scathing. “Schoolboy stuff”, “terrible” and “just not good enough” being the Terriers midfielder’s verdict on how struggling Birmingham City were allowed to waltz away from a sodden John Smith’s Stadium with all three points.

Clearly, therefore, an afternoon to forget for Town, who really were every bit as bad as both their manager and stand-in captain suggested in the immediate aftermath of the club’s third defeat in four league outings.

Dominated in midfield, toothless in attack and once again vulnerable at set-pieces, Huddersfield were distinctly second-best against the Blues and it was no wonder that only a couple of thousand home fans were still inside the stadium when referee Gavin Ward mercifully brought a halt to proceedings shortly before 5pm.

It means there is much to do for Robins and his coaching staff during the international break, especially with captain Clarke ruled out for up to eight weeks with a knee injury he sustained when coming off second-best in a fourth-minute 50-50 challenge with Lee Novak.

The big positive, of course, is that talismanic top scorer James Vaughan will be back for the derby trip to Sheffield Wednesday after serving a three-game ban.

Even so, Robins is the first to admit there will have to be a big improvement when his players take to the field at Hillsborough on November 23.

The Town manager said: “Right from the first to last whistle, we were awful. Abject. And that is not like us at all.

“It is very difficult to put your finger on why that happened. It wasn’t a game of tactics. It was a game of ‘who has men in their team?’ And against Birmingham, we didn’t have enough willing to stand up and be counted. That was a massive disappointment.

“I am really angry. It was a game we should have won but instead we allowed Birmingham to come here and take the points. It was a poor game and, yet again, we have conceded two goals from set-plays.

“I take responsibility for results because I pick the team. But I need the team to stand up and be counted.

“We huffed and puffed at times but there was no quality, from back to front. We were really, really short all over the field.

“I will be looking at everything over the next two weeks because we need some wins. It is as simple as that. Everyone I have at my disposal comes into my thoughts, if they are firing.”

That last sentiment suggests Adam Clayton and Martin Paterson, both omitted from the team that beat Leeds last month amid rumours of a training ground fracas the previous day, could be in line for a return against the Owls.

Paterson, who has undergone surgery on a hand injury, is expected to play for Northern Ireland this week but it was Clayton’s passing ability that was most badly missed against Birmingham.

Whether the former Leeds man could have stemmed the tide of Blues attacks is a moot point. But, in his absence, Town’s midfield were totally dominated by their counterparts from the Midlands.

This control led directly to the opening goal on 11 minutes as, after Huddersfield had once again been muscled off the ball in the centre of the field, play was switched by Callum Reilly to the left flank where Mitch Hancox swung over an inviting cross that Lee Novak turned goalwards.

Alex Smithies then showed great reflexes to block his former team-mate’s shot only for the ball to run to Nikola Zigic, who fired in from close range.

At that stage, Jesse Lingard had already been denied by Smithies and when the on-loan Manchester United man put the ball in the net on 25 minutes, Huddersfield’s afternoon seemed to have taken another downward turn.

Relief came, however, courtesy of an offside flag against Zigic during the build-up that seemed questionable, at best. Town soon capitalised on the let-off, Anthony Gerrard heading in unmarked after being picked out by Adam Hammill’s free-kick just after the half-hour.

It meant Huddersfield, despite being way below their best, were able to go in level at the break and the hope among all but the 814 visiting fans in a crowd of 14,161 was that Robins’s side could kick on after the restart.

Instead, it was a much more sprightly Birmingham who seized the initiative when Kyle Bartley headed in from Lingard’s corner on 66 minutes.

The Blues duo repeated the trick nine minutes from the end, this time a floated free-kick doing the damage as the defence once again parted to allow loanee Bartley to power a header past Smithies.

Bizarrely, the visitors were then reduced to 10 men as Bartley, quite literally, took his celebrations a step too far. Referee Ward, who had booked the Blues defender for a foul on Danny Ward during the first half, immediately brandished a second yellow card for, as Bartley admitted afterwards, taking “one step over the advertising hoarding”.

Blues manager Clark felt the official could have used common sense and let the defender off. Otherwise, though, the former Town manager was a happy man at the final whistle.

He said: “I thought we played very well. We worked Huddersfield really hard and created a lot of chances.

“We knew that set-pieces were an area where Huddersfield had conceded a fair percentage of their goals this season. Plus, they had lost players with considerable height and determination, including the captain (Clarke), who attacks the ball very well at set-pieces.

“So that made it even more important for us to get our delivery right. That was a key area of our performance and I thought we could have scored more.”