Huddersfield Town coach Michael Duff keen to get down to the details after losing run

For the second time in four days in South Yorkshire, Town suffered a 2-1 setback, this time going down 2-1 in the EFL Trophy at Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday night with Duff's side on the receiving end of a late penalty which he felt was harsh – akin to their weekend league loss at Rotherham United.

The frustration of the past seven days prompted chairman Kevin Nagle to take to social media afterwards, with a message on 'X' stating: 'Not good enough!!. Cup or league we need to do better.."

Nagle went onto post that some extended time in the international break – Town return to league action at Bolton on Saturday week – represents a welcome facet, while declaring to his 'full confidence' in Duff and his team.

For his part, Duff plans to use the time wisely and methodically. Certainly, his side's balance in midfield looks like being one thing to address.

He said: "It is what it is. It's an opportunity to work. We've had a batch of games now and we can almost dissect them and go 'what were we good at? What do we need to improve? That's what we will be doing.

"It's more of the detail now and individual coaching. Because pre-season is what we want the team to look like and then you can break that into units and break it further down into individuals."

Town handed debuts to two teenage midfielders in Cam Ashia and Dan Vost and forward Peter Thomas, 20, at Rovers and despite scoring a fine leveller early in the second half through Danny Ward, the visitors – who named a strong bench with Jonathan Hogg, Ben Wiles and Antony Evans coming on – couldn't finish the job and victory belonged to Rovers, through Joe Ironside's 82nd-minute penalty.

Duff added: "I thought there was some good play as a general rule. But at the minute, we are having to score really good goals and we've given up a couple of poor goals in the last few weeks.

"It doesn't matter who you are going to play. We limited them to two shots in a game and one was a penalty which we don't think is a penalty, or it's harsh if it is.

"The law of averages say that won't happen every week.

"At the minute, the nit-pick is we have to keep scoring brilliant goals and we are landing on enough scrappy ones. There are loads of chances from set-plays, which we are not scoring from.

"The execution has been good – but it's just that final moment, which is the bit that we need to get better at."

Assistant coach Cliff Byrne professed delight after Rovers recorded their fifth victory in seven matches this term.

He said: “I think there was control from our point of view.

"It’s something that the players can take great credit.

"Their decision making on the pitch is growing all the time and their trust in the manager’s game play was there to see.”