Huddersfield Town: Carlos Corberan and Terriers finding the right mix of substance and style

But games against Millwall are typically more about substance than style, and now the Terriers have plenty of that too. Patience, fitness, determination, fantastic defending and once again set pieces were every bit as important in what felt like a really big 1-0 win.

It was, in short, a Jonathan Hogg-style game but the Teessider is no longer unusual in exhibiting Jonathan Hogg-style qualities.

“In the Championship when every game is so close, these small details can change the results a lot,” said coach Carlos Corberan.

Hogg’s header from an 82nd-minute corner was the headline moment but Sorba Thomas was quick to point to another.

“Everyone will talk about the goal and the header from Hoggy, but not many people are going to talk about the tackle from Matty Pearson on (Tom) Bradshaw,” he stressed. “They are the tackles that win games.”

Centre-back Pearson was one of the best players on the pitch, never better than when he launched into a tackle as Bradshaw bore down on goal in the 66th minute. Thomas hacked the ensuing corner away.

Pearson is one of the players who have improved the team immeasurably this season just by doing the uncomplicated, dirty, Hogg-style stuff so well. He, Tom Lees, Levi Colwill and Lee Nicholls, all added in the summer, bring a security not there last season by doing the sort of things which too often in the past were left to Hogg.

With so many generals to rely on, when things are not happening from them in front of goal, there is no need to fret. Corberan made a substitution, then two more, changed shape and watched his team keep banging away at the door until it finally opened.

There was not the nervousness you might expect on the pitch, and no tutting “typical Town” on the terraces.

“It’s very important that the players are like pilots commanding a plane,” was Corberan’s analogy. “Sometimes people can panic but if you are more stable, you can analyse the situations and make the right decisions.”

Thomas has much more natural ability on the ball yet the same hunger for unglamorous work.

“He was defending as a full-back and attacking as a winger,” said Corberan admiringly.

“In the second half, you could tell the fitter team won that game,” reflected Thomas. “It shows that pre-season, the runs Carlos put us through and all that, it paid off in the end.”

Thomas showed a willingness to take defenders on and to shoot – although the less said about his accuracy at times, the better – but it was in the unheralded role of delivery man that he won the game.

When Danny Ward, another who had grafted hard as a lone centre-forward but was now dropping off substitute Fraizer Campbell in what had become a 4-2-3-1, volleyed a shot Bartosz Bialkowski saved and Millwall scrambled behind as Harry Toffolo tried to make the most of the rebound, Thomas served up a ball Hogg could run in front of the near post onto, and flick inside the far for his second goal this season, the most prolific of the holding midfielder’s career if that is not overstretching the word.

That Josh Koroma, Campbell and Toffolo picked up bookings in the short time Huddersfield defended their lead and that Millwall demanded a penalty when the ball was hammered against Toffolo added to the hard-fought feel of the win.

It ought to have been bigger but the doggedness of Gary Rowett’s side, plus the brutal truth that the fifth-best team in the Championship are not actually that great at scoring in open play – only Derby County and Barnsley have done so less – ensured it was not.

Scoring “normal” goals is something they need to get better at but fifth in the table is a good place to demand improvement from. Corberan says he sees it, arguing: “The accumulation of free-kicks and set pieces is the consequence of managing open-play situations well.”

The 3-4-2-1 formation both sides started the game with is about getting men between the lines, but Duane Holmes and Danel Sinani had more joy than Sheyi Ojo and Jed Wallace, and the outstanding Lewis O’Brien more than any of them when he stepped up from Hogg’s left-hand side. It was so pronounced that at half-time Ojo was replaced with Maikel Kieftenbeld, stationed where the big red blob on O’Brien’s heatmap would have been.

If Huddersfield had been held to a 0-0 draw for the second home game running we would have been cursing their inability to make the most of it, but we were not.

“The team had enough fluency to attack even better than we did,” argued Corberan. “There are always things to improve but I am watching a team going in the right direction.”