Huddersfield Town v Birmingham City: Michael Duff stays calm amid acid test of Terriers' promotion credentials

The Town head coach made a mental note after watching visiting Bolton Wanderers players and staff heartily celebrating their 1-0 victory at the John Smith’s Stadium as they became the first League One side to beat the Terriers in 17 matches, a sequence dating back to October 1.

You had to go back earlier to September 24 for the previous time that Duff’s side saw their colours lowered on home soil.

Duff had no issue whatsoever with Bolton’s jubilation. For Huddersfield’s players, it might have also served a purpose as they prepare for the arrival of the division's leaders and most-talked about side in Birmingham City tonight.

Duff, pictured, said: “No-one wants to get beaten and you could see what it meant to them (Bolton) and sometimes, it’s not a bad thing to get beaten.

“No-one wants it and not particularly me as my job is on the line.

“But sometimes, that horrible gut feeling when you walk in the dressing room and hear others celebrate means you have got to get back to work.”

Town, who welcome back recent signing Ruben Roosken following a three-match ban, face a Blues side who are unbeaten in their past 15 matches in all competitions since November 23, winning 12 of them.

With a considerable sense of understatement, Duff added: “Birmingham are not a bad team and I went to watch them the other night and they are decent.

“But it’s just a game of football and there won’t be any massive overreaction (from Saturday). People will twist things and say it's this and that. We lost a game and have to be better than that to win on Tuesday.

“If we lose on Tuesday, we will dust ourselves down just as we have done before. You treat every game as its own entity to try and get better.”

Saturday saw new striking duo Joe Taylor and Dion Charles struggle to get into the game against a well-marshalled Bolton backline, with Duff keen to preach the importance of patience with the pair needing time to fully integrate with their team-mates and build an understanding with each other as well.

The Town chief has a point, most definitely regarding Taylor, whose game-time was almost exclusively confined to brief cameos from the bench at previous club Luton Town in the first half of 2024-25 before getting the green light to move to Huddersfield.

Duff commented: “Joe has not played a lot of football and it takes time to build relationships. You don’t marry your ‘missus’ on the first day.

“It takes a bit of time to build that trust with each other and the other players need to learn.

“We have done a lot of 11 v 11s in the last four or five training sessions to try and help and promote those new players to get them fit and build relationships. We think they are two good players.”