Huddersfield Town's Mark Fotheringham asks for more patience to get key players up to speed

The Terriers were hit by crippling injuries in the first part of the season, which they ended bottom of the Championship.

Finally recovered from glandular fever, Tino Anjorin injured his ankle training for the 1-0 defeat at Sheffield United, and Etienne Camara has Covid-19.

Jonathan Hogg did return from injury and summer signing Tyreece Simpson was fit enough to make his debut, but both could only make cameos off the bench. The XI for Town’s first game in four weeks consisted entirely of players available last month.

"Tino rolled his ankle on Friday," said coach Fotheringham, yet to learn the extent of the injury. "We had him down to start.

"He's able to go one-v-one and bring other people into play. He can put the ball in the net as well.

"We had a lot of opportunities to really stretch the game and put Sheffield United to bed. It was probably the final pass or decision-making (lacking) and maybe Tino with his confidence (could have made the difference).

"There's no way that's a team at the top of the league against a team at the bottom of the league in terms of performance levels."

Hogg's half-time introduction put Huddersfield much more on the front foot after a first half when the Blades ought to have scored more than Billy Sharp's first goal this season.

"When you've got personnel with that know-how of how to put their foot on the ball and bring a real calmness it makes a big difference," said Fotheringham.

"When we brought more offensive players on you could see we were occupying the back three a lot more and with Tyreece you've got a very big focal point but he's got a lot more to him than that."