Huddersfield Town in freefall and relegation battle
Saturday was the worst of the lot and scraped the barrel.
Grim home defeats to the likes of Luton, Stoke and Wigan were hard to take last season. Last month’s reverse to Millwall was also excruciatingly bad.
These latest events against Wycombe – the club who gatecrashed the Huddersfield party on the Terriers’ historic first competitive game at this venue and have now set off the relegation alarm bells – were truly pitiful in a second half which was as tough as it gets.
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Hide AdKeeping out the bitter cold has been hard enough of late. Town must now cope with a perfect storm.
A home game against a rock-bottom Wycombe side who had won just one of their previous 17 second-tier games and were simply atrocious in a lame midweek loss at Hillsborough was a chance that Town dare not pass up.
That Huddersfield inexplicably did just that after leading 2-0 and allowing Wycombe to score three unanswered goals in a Championship fixture for the first time in their history had to be seen to be believed.
A squad savaged by injury, Town’s reservoirs of confidence and self-belief have now tanked after a seven-game winless run.
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Hide AdAt the end of a week when chairman Phil Hodgkinson confirmed that the club were likely to lose £10-12m due to Covid and revealed that their wage bill stands at £19m, Town were beaten by a side who have ‘the smallest budget in the division by a mile’ in the words of Wycombe manager Gareth Ainsworth.
On the day, Wycombe’s players were rich in spirit, desire and belief and showed up the hosts. There were everything that Huddersfield were not.
Left to pick up the pieces afterwards was Carlos Corberan, a head coach who is technically enlightening on the training ground, but who must now discover the art of man-management fast to lift a shattered and demoralised group.
His post-match acceptance that Huddersfield are in a relegation fight should hopefully refocus some minds for some testing times ahead.
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Hide AdTwelve months ago, Hull City head coach Grant McCann refused to accept his side were as they entered freefall and the rest is history.
In tough times, players must also front up. Defender Naby Sarr, as culpable as anyone in Town’s demise in the second half, commendably did just that.
Sarr, part of a Charlton side relegated from the Championship last term, said: “I have had this experience two or three times and it is not an easy thing.
“You need a lot of character, togetherness and, most importantly, the fight to get out of it. We are all fighting for the same thing, so we have to stick together and keep working hard.
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Hide Ad“We have to take things differently to my previous team and show more determination. In any team, you must have a strong mentality and keep believing. If we do that, we can turn it around.”
From the opening moments of the game, it was clear from the energy being expended by both sets of coaching staff in their respective dug-outs that this was perhaps no ordinary fixture, but a key one in the context of both Town’s and Wycombe’s season.
While not in the last-chance saloon just yet, Wycombe were preparing to get their order in.
Wanderers soon showed why they came into this game with the division’s worst goals-against tally on their travels. Town exposed this deficiency, but unfortunately proceeded to get complacent and completely lose their way.
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Hide AdWycombe were growing into the game when Town struck first and it was a beauty.
A sweeping crossfield ball from left to right from Alex Vallejo picked out Fraizer Campbell, whose cushioned, volleyed cross picked out Juninho Bacuna, who nodded home to continue his happy knack of netting key goals.
Duane Holmes and Pipa tested Ryan Allsop before the hosts doubled their money on 42 minutes, thanks in part to more subtlety and quality from Campbell.
He deceived his markers and showed a deft touch to instigate a rapid Town counter with Pipa then finding Isaac Mbenza, who cut inside on the left before seeing his low shot beat Allsop.
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Hide AdAll was seemingly set fair, only for the game’s key moment to then arrive when Anis Mehmeti crowned a bright first-half showing by netting a clinical low drive seconds before the break.
It was all the incentive that Wycombe required to take over.
Their midfield won all the battles on the restart and up front, they had a battering ram in Uche Ikpeazu, who went close in the first half when his angled volley was cleared off the line by Sarr.
The burly striker led Town a merry dance and after brushing aside Richard Keogh, he was brought down by a panicking challenge from home captain Jonathan Hogg and Joe Jacobson confidently dispatched a 62nd-minute penalty.
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Hide AdThat moment should have shaken up Town. Instead, they got worse and went to pieces.
Daryl Horgan’s header was palmed away by Ryan Schofield before Gareth McCleary curled just over as Wycombe sensed blood and went for the jugular.
Somehow, Anthony Stewart failed to convert from a few yards out before Josh Knight struck after a late free-kick was not cleared for a winner that had an air of inevitability about it.
It was a desperate moment in what has been a desperately worrying 2021 for ailing Huddersfield Town.
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