Huddersfield Town to go 'hell for leather' in League One run-in as Jon Stead points to collective strength
Huddersfield Town may be bruised - but co-interim head coach Jon Stead is adamant they are not beaten.
A win over Wycombe Wanderers at the weekend would have kept the Terriers within three points of sixth-placed Stevenage, who were victorious away at Bradford City.
Huddersfield approached the end of normal time with a 2-1 lead but after 11 minutes of stoppage time, the final score at the Accu Stadium was 3-3.
It was a concession of points they could not really afford and one that put a huge dent in their play-off hopes. Devastation was etched on the faces of the Terriers at full-time but there is no time for self-pity.
Personal motivators in the Huddersfield Town camp
With second-placed Cardiff City due in HD1 tomorrow (April 14), Stead has outlined the need for players to be driven by their own personal motivators.
“I think everybody's got different drivers,” he told The Yorkshire Post. “Everybody's got different things that motivate them.
“Some of them, it will be frustration. It might be frustration at us. It might be frustration at the club. It might be love. It might be care. There's always different ways - it might be support.
“The important thing, and this is what I've seen, is even though they've got individual things that are driving them on, when they all get them together and they're a collective, it's a powerful thing.
“I think they're showing that in the way they're playing. What I will say about the players is they're looking after each other. They're driving each other. There's a collective. There's a bond there.
“There's a responsibility between them that they should be doing better, but I think they recognise that and they're looking to put that right. I can only commend them for that and they've been a pleasure to work with. They've been brilliant. They've given absolutely everything and I'm sure they'll continue to do that between now and the end of the season.”
Huddersfield Town out to go hell for leather
Hope may be fading fast in the fanbase but there is fighting talk coming out of the Huddersfield camp. Stead, who is leading Huddersfield on an interim basis alongside Martin Drury with head coach Liam Manning on compassionate leave, has insisted there will be a full-throttle approach to the final games.
“In terms of us as a staff, there ain't no way we're letting this one ride out,” he said. “We are going hell for leather for the next games and we’ll see where that takes us.
“When you see moments that you see today (Saturday), there's nothing to say that a remarkable thing couldn't happen between now and the end of the season.
“We're in a bit of a mini-table, aren't we? If we go and win the rest of our games, we're still going to have a massive chance of being in the top six. We really are focused on ourselves and I think it's trying to get that consistency of our work and making sure we're still building on things, trying to tweak bits along the way, but actually getting them focusing on us and them as a collective, as a group, and then let everything else around the outside take care of itself.
“Obviously, we look at it (the table) because we're looking to check the results and see how things are going, how does that affect us, but our focus as a staff and as a group of players is on the next game.”