Huddersfield Town 3 Notts County 0: Clark urges Town to keep up the promotion pressure

Not only did the Terriers yesterday set a new club record for consecutive unbeaten league games during the same season by convincingly beating Paul Ince’s Notts County in front of the Sky cameras.

But, more importantly in terms of the League One promotion race, results elsewhere over the weekend meant Jordan Rhodes’ double and a second-half strike by Gary Roberts allowed Town to steal a march on all their rivals.

Huddersfield now lead the chasing pack by four points and look an increasingly good bet to hold on to the second automatic promotion place behind runaway leaders Brighton & Hove Albion.

Certainly, the attacking swagger that characterised the victory over County was that of a side who are full of confidence ahead of the all-important run-in.

Manager Lee Clark, whose side have conceded just 13 goals in 18 league outings since the turn of the year, said: “We could be looking at a repeat of last season (when five teams went into the final day hoping to win automatic promotion from League One).

“We are unbeaten in 18 games but we still have the other teams on our shirt-tails. That proves how hard it is proving to shake them off.

“Southampton are an excellent side, Peterborough score goals for fun while MK Dons have had an outstanding second half of the season.

“I have told my players we need to win the last seven games. Even then, 21 points out of a possible 21 may not be enough (due to Southampton having three games in hand and being five points behind Town).

“But what I will say is we are better equipped as a squad (than last season when reached play-offs). We have more experience and we also have the desire.

“Look at Kevin Kilbane. I woke up (yesterday morning) to three or four text messages saying he was catching a flight back (after playing for the Republic of Ireland against Macedonia in Dublin on Saturday night) due to him being so desperate to play for us in this game.”

Town had gone into the game knowing that the recent failings of the four sides immediately below them in the table offered a golden opportunity to strengthen their grip on second place.

Peterborough United collecting just one point out of a possible six since Huddersfield had last been in action eight days earlier was perhaps the biggest bonus.

But Southampton, MK Dons and Bournemouth all dropping two points apiece during the past week could, come May 7, prove just as important.

It was apparent from the kick-off yesterday that Town were in no mood to waste the chance to open up a decent-sized lead over their rivals.

Clark’s men should have been ahead as early as the fourth minute following a neat passing move that ended with Lee Peltier picking out Benik Afobe.

The Arsenal loanee was unmarked inside the six yard box so a goal should have been a formality, only for the youngster to stab a tame shot straight at goalkeeper Stuart Nelson.

It turned out to be the first of several important saves by the County stopper during a one-sided first half.

His best effort came just a minute before the interval with a full-length dive to keep out Joey Gudjonsson’s drilled free-kick, though Nelson also did well to keep out shots from Danny Ward and Jordan Rhodes.

There was, however, nothing the Magpies goalkeeper could do come the 36th minute when Rhodes netted the opening goal.

Again, a slick exchange of passes had opened up the visiting defence as Afobe raced clear to collect an intelligent through ball from Roberts.

Afobe’s pace, which had troubled the County backline all afternoon, meant he then had time to look up and pick out Rhodes with a wonderfully flighted cross that the Town top scorer gleefully headed into an empty net.

Going ahead was no more than the Terriers deserved for the manner in which they had pinned the visitors back for long periods.

It was a similar story after the break with Huddersfield taking just 62 seconds of the second half to call Nelson into action, the goalkeeper doing well to keep out a stinging drive by Afobe.

Danny Ward, who on this showing looks a more than adequate replacement for unfortunate injury victim Anthony Pilkington, was the next to test Nelson before the home side’s superiority was finally rewarded just before the hour.

This time Rhodes turned provider with a deft pass to Roberts, who finished with aplomb past Nelson.

Huddersfield were, by now, rampant and they extended their lead further on 61 minutes when Afobe again unselfishly set up Rhodes for his 20th goal of the season.

The win meant an extension of Town’s current unbeaten run to 18 games, beating the club’s previous best that had been set 91-years-ago by Herbert Chapman’s great side.

In terms of the all-time record, Clark’s men still have some way to match the 27-game run set by Chapman’s back-to-back League title winners between January and October, 1925.

With games against Peterborough, MK Dons and Brighton to come during this term’s run-in, maintaining League One’s only remaining unbeaten run of 2011 is going to be difficult.

But, if Town can maintain both the attacking swagger and that work-rate which saw Notts County harried off the ball at every turn, then it could be a very happy end to the season indeed at the Galpharm Stadium.