Huddersfield Town's second-string side hit back to encourage fans

Huddersfield Town and Stuttgart, both promoted last May, are looking forward to a new season that is likely to throw up an almighty scrap for survival in their respective top flights.

Of the two, the Terriers’ step-up is surely the more difficult.

With all due respect to the Bundesliga, the Premier League can be unforgiving to teams who have been away even a couple of years, never mind the 45 that have elapsed since Huddersfield last dined at the top table of English football.

It is why not only was Gloria Gaynor’s classic a fitting choice of song ahead of Town’s penultimate pre-season test – and stiffest to date – but also the venue, the Silberstadt Arena in Schwaz.

Gazing at the Kellerjoch and Eiblschrofen mountains that rise imperiously above the town on either side of the Lower Inn Valley, it was difficult not to see the landscape as a metaphor for the challenges that lie ahead for Town head coach David Wagner’s men.

Certainly, his self-styled “small dogs” are going to have to scale the heights and negotiate both the ups and many downs that come with life back among the elite if the club’s stay is to be extended beyond the coming season.

At times – most likely in the autumn when Tottenham, Manchester United and Liverpool lay in wait inside the space of a month – the Premier League newcomers will also have to display an ability to cling on to avoid the sort of fall that can prove fatal to a club’s hopes of staying up.

In that respect, the players who have taken Huddersfield to the summit of English football look well suited to the task– even if last night saw what was effectively a first choice XI struggle against the reigning Bundesliga Two champions before a second-string side launched a valiant fightback to claim a 3-3 draw.

With only the ill Christopher Schindler absent of the players most likely to start against Crystal Palace on August 12, much was expected of the Terriers ahead of kick-off.

But, it was the German side who looked much slicker on the ball as they took the game to a strangely ponderous Town in that first half.

Steve Mounie cut an isolated figure up front, his only real touch of note coming when he volleyed Chris Lowe’s cross wide from a tight angle.

Tom Ince also went close to netting a fifth goal in just five hours of pre-season football with a curled effort.

But, otherwise, the best Huddersfield could muster was a freak clearance by Jonas Lossl that bounced wickedly over his counterpart in the Stuttgart goal and just wide of the goal.

Wagner made ten changes at the break, as he had planned to do in an attempt to protect his players from the searing heat.

By then, the Germans were two goals ahead thanks to Simon Terodde and Chadrac Akolo.

Both came from slack defending and were a timely reminder as to how important concentration is going to be once the real action gets under way.

Town, following those wholesale changes at the interval, improved markedly and pulled a goal back when Rajiv van La Parra’s cross caused such panic in the six-yard area that the ball found the bottom corner of the net via a Stuttgart boot.

Stuttgart quickly reasserted their two-goal lead when Tobias Werner rounded off a lightning quick break midway through the second half, but that was merely the prelude to a thrilling finale that saw Collin Quaner and Sean Scannell score to earn the English side a draw.

Such a stirring fightback was a fitting way to cap Yorkshire Day for the county’s sole representative in this season’s Premier League and the 200 or so fans who had made the trip to sun-baked Schwaz.

A small band of those from God’s Own County treated the bemused looking Germans who made up the lion’s share of the crowd to songs about Andy Booth and the delights of travelling over land and sea (and Nottingham) in support of their club.

For those whose drinking had been more moderate, the big talking point along with Town’s stirring late rally was whether Wagner’s re-modelled squad are ready for the new season.

Wagner, for his part, believes his players are getting there. “It was another step in terms of our preparation,” he said. “There were negative and positives, but it gave us good information on ourselves. We will be okay.”

Maybe, with apologies to one of America’s finest disco singers, Town really do have no need to be afraid or petrified about stepping up to the Premier League.