Huddersfield Town v Blackburn Rovers: Trust and togetherness transforming the Terriers

The Terriers host Blackburn Rovers on Monday from outside of the Championship relegation zone for the first time since August.

A team as good as Jon Dahl Tomasson's play-off chasers could easily put them back in it again with only a one-point gap to the bottom three but Huddersfield look to have the togetherness to pull through adversity.

That was the word Jack Rudoni opted for, Neil Warnock went for "trust".

Wigan Athletic’s Steven Caulker last month accused his club's owners of "lying" to the squad as wages were not paid on time once more.

Blackpool parted ways with Mick McCarthy on Friday when the veteran manager from Barnsley was unable to find any alchemy in 14 games as a firefighter.

Reading’s players have been dropped into the relegation zone by financial mismanagement.

The reaction of some Queens Park Rangers players when new manager Gareth Ainsworth taught them about the haka recently looked like an excruciating scene from The Office.

Huddersfield have had their problems too, enacting their long-term succession plan when Carlos Corberan walked out in pre-season, then deciding just nine matches in that coach Danny Schofield was not all they had cracked him up to be.

A panic sacking probably merited a panic appointment, but again the Terriers went long-term, giving Mark Fotheringham his first job in management. The Scot's habit of praising players to the hilt one minute then throwing them under the bus – or in Sorba Thomas's case, into the Blackburn squad, on loan – cannot have helped morale in a squad mixed with youngsters looking to find their way and old heads who could recognise the difference between a good and a bad manager.

Even the short-term move of appointing Warnock took time to have an effect. After winning his first game, Town picked up two points from his next five.

But the hours on the training ground, the soothing whispers in ears and angry rants in dressing rooms are starting to pay off after consecutive victories over Millwall, Middlesbrough and Watford.

"Morale's good and everyone's loving it," says midfielder Rudoni, who finally scored his maiden Huddersfield goal on Friday.

"We keep together and keep working hard so it's on to the next one.

"Watford are a team with great ability but it's the word team – we were a team.

"We also have the ability to damage teams, so with all our ability, then that teamwork added on and our togetherness, that's what we can do."

The difference, it would seem, is Warnock, able to tactically and psychologically unlock talent in a division where Watford are far from alone in being a big-budget squad failing to punch their weight.

"They trust me," he explains. "I just can't fault the group of lads, they've given me everything.

"They've got belief.

"As a manger you can tell, especially as a home manger, when you're talking to a group they're all listening to me, nobody is looking away.

"Every eye is on me and they're taking it all in. I think they trust me and that's all I wanted them to do.

"We have to move on and we need a full house or a big crowd behind us on Monday."

It is not just Wanrock who says his players have belief now.

"We're delighted with the wins we've got and we're buzzing but it's nowhere near done yet, is it?" cautioned Rudoni.

"We've got to keep this up and if we keep playing like we're playing and we keep getting wins we'll definitely be all right."

Once teams build a feel-good factor it can snowball and Rudoni's goal is an example of that.

A selfless player who made a point of talking up Kian Harratt's first goal for the club when asked about his own, he has done just about everything but score this season having shown a talent for arriving in good positions.

“It’s a massive relief for everybody!” says Warnock.

“He probably shoots a bit too much in training, he’s been desperate to get a goal. It was good to see it go in, hopefully that might calm him down a bit.

“He’s a manager’s dream, he’ll do anything that you say.

“When I came in, there were one or two people who doubted signing someone like that. He’s just a gem of a lad really.”