Huddersfield Town: Ollie Turton hoping 2022 can again be the year of the underdog

HUDDERSFIELD TOWN defender Ollie Turton knows what it is like to be part of an unassuming, humble group of well-coached players who slip under the radar to produce an outstanding success story.

That transpired at former club Blackpool in a 2020-21 campaign when most observers expected them to fall off the League One pace, but never did. The same might just occur a level above with the Terriers a season on.

Last year was a time when much of the focus was on the likes of Sunderland, Charlton, Ipswich and Hull City and not the Seasiders, who had finished just below mid-table in 13th place in the previous 2019-20 season.

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Blackpool, under the command of a very well-regarded and astute figure in Neil Critchley – who had garnered a great deal of respect in the coaching sphere for his technical work at Liverpool Under-23s which had marked him out as someone to watch – grew into the season and prospered.

Huddersfield Town's Ollie Turton. Picture: Tony JohnsonHuddersfield Town's Ollie Turton. Picture: Tony Johnson
Huddersfield Town's Ollie Turton. Picture: Tony Johnson

It culminated in play-off glory against Lincoln City at Wembley and a return to the Championship.

Like Critchley, Town head coach Carlos Corberan had earlier impressed onlookers at another a big club in this country at Leeds. Just as you cannot fail to learn things from Jurgen Klopp, working at close quarters alongside Marcelo Bielsa is also something akin to the coaching equivalent of going to Harvard.

Critchley and Corberan, despite some early ‘bumps in the road’ striking out on their own, have applied that knowledge well. They go about their business quietly and don’t look far ahead either. Very wise.

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Turton commented: “Neil was a great coach and likewise here (with Corberan). They are the same tactically and both very, very good. It is great to be able to work under both of them.

“I think one of the similarities for me is that we were going game by game and picking up results (at Blackpool). It wasn’t really looking to the future, but more concentrating on the next game rather than looking too ahead of yourself.

“We are doing that here and not looking too far into the future. You can only control the ‘now’ and that is one of the things I have recognised the most.

“We need to control what is happening now and going into each game, we don’t leave no stone unturned and we know what we have to do.”

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Town headed into the international break on the back of successive Championship losses for the first time since November. Given that they endured two hard campaigns in 2020-21 and 2019-20 when they flirted with relegation, plenty of perspective is required.

Corberan’s side remain in the top six and just as a strong and together group of players – who possess a core of top-quality senior professionals – did not crack open the champagne corks when Town were flying, they won’t pop the anti-depressants after a couple of setbacks either.

Ultimately, coping with setbacks is the art of Championship life for most sides. And you would struggle to meet a more grounded and honest set of players at this level than those at Huddersfield.

Turton, who joined last summer, added: “It is a great bunch and that helps any changing room, no matter how good a team you are or anything like that. It helps massively and has been really good.

“The amount of work that all the lads put into training is massive and there’s no-one who downs tools and everyone is full-on in every single day and that’s what you need.”

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