Lee Grant says Huddersfield Town handed most 'brutal' lesson he has seen in football by Bolton Wanderers
Lee Grant says Huddersfield Town were dealt the most “brutal” lesson he had experienced in his entire career by Bolton Wanderers.
But Bolton scored twice in two stoppage-time minutes through Sam Dalby and Amario Cozier-Duberry.
"That was about as tough as you can get in terms of the finish to the game, about a brutal an end to a game as I've ever experienced," said the former goalkeeper, who is in his first season as a manager.
"There's lots of anger, lots of frustration, lots of disappointment for a game that we really set about in the right fashion. We really went about it with the right level of aggression and intensity in the first period and then in the second half strayed way too far away from the things that gave us success in the first half.
"Therein lies the lesson for us as a staff, as a group, as individuals.
"We have to stay very, very close to the things that give us success, stay very tight to our principles. We strayed too far away from them in the second half.
"That probably leads to the finish we got.
"There is probably not a more sore way to learn that lesson than what we've experienced this evening."
Asked if he thought the problem was psychological, Grant replied: "I think it's a mentality thing because they seem to drop a little bit deeper and they will get very nervous on the ball (in the) second half. I think they would have understood that this is an important game for them and would have placed high value on this game collectively, individually.
"They showed plenty of freedom about their work in the first half defensively. They showed plenty of freedom and spirit about their work and creativity in the first half from an in-possession standpoint.
"Lots of that for me tightens up in the second half and that's a real disappointment.
"Do I think the group have it within them to display and continue all of those things in the second half? Absolutely, absolutely. So that's a real lesson for us.
"My suspicion would be that there's a group that is desperate to win the game and fight and do what they need to for the clean sheet but go about it perhaps in the wrong way.
"I think we've also got enough honest guys and we have to be honest about there's ways that we'd like to do it and the second half doesn't look like that."