Huddersfield Town boss Mark Fotheringham on why the next two weeks will define the Terriers Championship season

The Terriers head into today’s clash against Queen’s Park Rangers looking for their first win in four league outings, in what is only their second home game of the year, the last one coming on New Year’s Day when promotion hopefuls Luton Town left with both points in a 2-1 victory.

QPR’s visit marks the first of five games in 15 days for Fotheringham’s team, all of which come against teams in and around them in the table, with the possible exception of today’s opponents, who currently sit 14th, 12 points better off.

Regardless, it marks a key moment in the campaign for Town, who need to end their poor goalscoring record if they are to stand any chance of climbing out of trouble, something Fotheringham is adamant they will do.

The arrival of loan forwards Anthony Knockaert (pictured), from Fulham, and Martyn Waghorn – who was ineligible for last week’s 2-0 defeat at parent club Coventry City as part of his agreement – certainly offers hope in that department.

Fotheringham believes the club have emerged from a busy month of transfer activity in far better shape than when they went into it.

“These next five games are going to define our season for me, five big games in 15 days - the players are under no illusions,” said Fotheringham.

“We owe it to ourselves to turn these games into positive performances - but not only that, to make sure we get the wins as well.

“We’re all experienced enough, we’ve all been through these situations before and we go into this period full of confidence.

“The pressure is on and there has been a lot of hard work on the training ground to put ourselves into this position. We have two games in hand on Cardiff City and we could come out of the bottom three this weekend for the first time, which would be amazing.

“The guys all know the situation we’re in and the carrot is there for us. It’s only going to be hard work and determination that will get us out of it and it starts this Saturday.”

Fotheringham was appointed towards the back end of September to succeed the sacked Danny Schofield and with the Terriers in dire straits.

Their position has improved, albeit slightly but, with the changes made, Fotheringham is confident the club can climb to safety and build for a play-off push in 2023-24.

“If we keep this club in the Championship, that would be a very, very big achievement,” he added. “And that’s because of what happened last season and handling the disappointment of not going up.

“Then there have been two changes of manager, there has been a hell of a lot of players sold on and you’re trying to build a new squad without a big pre-season.

“And obviously I’m another new coach who has come in and we have the same situation where we are trying to find consistency. But we know what we need to do to stay in this league – we will continue to strive to do that.”