Huddersfield Town 0 Leeds United 3: Wagner is handed a crash course for openers

But, as David Wagner made his way out of the directors’ box five minutes before the end of Huddersfield Town’s derby loss to Leeds United, there was no doubting that the German had just been given a crash course in the often cruel and unforgiving ways of the Championship.

The scoreboard looking down on the John Smith’s Stadium as Wagner headed for the exit showed that Leeds led 3-0.

All three of those strikes had been of the very highest order, be it the sweeping moves that led to the double from Mirco Antenucci and Chris Wood in first half stoppage time or the 25-yard thunderbolt from Alex Mowatt that gave Joe Murphy no chance shortly after the restart.

Yet, as Wagner and his wife bade chairman Dean Hoyle a fond farewell en route to heading for home, the 44-year-old will have known that such a comprehensive scoreline had been harsh on his new charges.

Just as many chances had been created by Town as the visitors, most notably in a second half that saw Marco Silvestri called on to pull off two stunning saves in between Wells and Kyle Dempsey wasting glorious opportunities.

But this inability to capitalise at key moments, a failing of not just this season at the John Smith’s but the last couple as well, meant Wagner had an early insight into how harsh a place the second tier can be.

“It was tough to take as a result,” said Harry Bunn, Town’s standout performer in front of the new head coach. “It was not a 3-0 game. Sometimes things go for you and sometimes they don’t. The Leeds game was one when they didn’t.

“No excuses from what happened in the week (when Chris Powell was sacked). It can be unsettling but we are footballers and paid to do our jobs.

“We have to just get on with things. No matter who is in charge, our job is to win and we didn’t do that.

“We should have been better and for that we can only apologise to the fans and the people who paid money to watch the game.”

Saturday’s derby with Leeds was not the first time Wagner had seen Town in action. It is understood he had watched at least a couple of the club’s previous outings, adding weight to the belief that the change of manager had been in the offing for some time.

The hope for the Terriers, though, was that against Leeds Wagner would witness a step towards the ‘gegenpressen’ – basically, pressing the ball for 90 minutes and playing at full throttle – approach that Borussia Dortmund were renowned for during Wagner’s time working under best friend Jurgen Klopp.

Mark Lillis, in his fourth spell as caretaker manager, clearly wanted his side to take the game to Leeds – as was evident early in the first half when the ball flew into the main stand for a Town throw-in and the Academy chief implored the fans to return it as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately for Lillis, the only aspect of a largely poor first half that had the swift and concise play he demanded came in stoppage time courtesy of United’s two goals.

First, Stuart Dallas and Wood exchanged passes on the right flank after Scott Wootton, fresh from escaping what would have been a deserved second yellow card, had got the ball forward. Dallas then whipped in a quite wonderful cross that Antenucci met with an equally impressive volley.

That came five minutes into over-time, a sickening collision between Liam Cooper and team-mate Wootton having seen play held up for a lengthy period before the Leeds defender was stretchered from the field.

United’s second arrived 60 seconds later as Antenucci turned provider, the Italian latching on to a slide-rule pass from Luke Murphy before drilling a low cross that Mark Hudson could only divert to Wood and he did the rest from six yards out.

Huddersfield’s response after the interval was to step up their own game and Wells really should have halved the deficit inside the first minute only to miss the ball with the goal at his mercy.

Bunn and Dempsey then drew applause from Wagner with decent play in the Leeds penalty area before the visitors raced up the other end and Mowatt thundered a shot past Joe Murphy.

All that was left for the Terriers was pride and Marco Silvestri had to save brilliantly from, first, James Vaughan and then Bunn.

As if to underline the lack of a killer instinct on the part of the hosts, Dempsey then wasted a golden chance in stoppage time.

By then, Wagner had departed with much to ponder ahead of what is likely to be a busy fortnight on the training ground.

Bunn added: “The next two weeks are something I am looking forward to. He is coming with a good background. Borussia Dortmund are a massive side. I don’t know too much about him myself, other than where he has come from. But it will be good to work with him.”

Huddersfield Town: Murphy; Cranie, Hudson, Wallace, Davidson; Dempsey, Whitehead, Billing (Huws 30), Lolley (Holmes 71); Wells (Vaughan 57), Bunn. Unused substitutes: Steer, Smith, Carayol, Bojaj.

Leeds United: Silvestri; Wootton (Adeyemi 71), Bellusci, Cooper (Bamba 18), Berardi; Dallas (Botaka 85), Cook, Murphy, Mowatt; Wood, Antenucci. Unused substitutes: Horton, Erwin, Buckley, Phillips.

Referee: G Scott.