Martin Drury wants a more ruthless Huddersfield Town – and he is prepared to lead the way

The Terriers put in a strong performance at home to Cardiff City, leading for 68 minutes and hitting the woodwork either side of it. But as against Wycombe Wanderers, they dropped two points to a stoppage-time goal. This one was down to a Yousuf Salech header in the fifth added minute to claim a 1-1 draw.

Huddersfield won the numbers game, but were missing the vital ingredient to make it count.

"It was frustrating to take one point when I felt we should have had three," said Drury, in temporary charge with Jon Stead whilst Liam Manning is on compassionate leave.

"Just looking at some stats, I think Cardiff have outdone us on one stat and that's possession. For someone who wants the ball and wants to have the ball, that's frustrating in itself.

“But at the same time, I accept that Cardiff's a team that's been built to play that way, so then we have to be good at all the other things.

"I felt we set the defended the sides really well, I thought our centre-halves and midfielders defended crosses into the box outstandingly well and I felt within all that, we posed a real threat on the counter(-attack) – numerous shots, numerous opportunities.

"(We had) 16 shots, 14 in the opponent's box, which is more than Cardiff have had all season from inside their box, which is very rare.

"I'm frustrated we haven't got a ruthlessness about us and a cutting edge when we get there. I'm frustrated by some game-management decisions later on in the game.

"I'm not frustrated by the togetherness of the group, the quality of some of our play.

"But again, we have to be more ruthless when we arrive at the opponent's box.

"We've hit the bar twice. We've had a goal ruled out for offside and we've had numerous opportunities in their box to put the ball in the net.

"If you don't do that, you get punished. And I think we got a sucker-punch at the end of the game."

With Stevenage taking a beating at Bolton Wanderers, Huddersfield were on course to close the gap to the League One play-off places to two points until Salech scored. Instead it is four with only three games to play for the Terriers.

Drury hinted at "consequences" for those who do not show the ruthlessness the Terriers need.

"I was really open with the players," he said. "I was quite brash with them, where I felt we were at.

"I felt tonight was a big moment for us.

"It's frustrating, really frustrating.

"I'm struggling to find many different words, really.

"I give the players credit for effort, endeavour, sticking together, their work ethic. I think they produced an entertaining game, yet again, for everyone that watched it. But I'm now at a point where I'll not continue to praise those things.

"Now we need to go to the next level. We need to start putting the ball in the back net when we arrive there and we need to have a real maturity about us when it gets to the end of the game.

"That's game-management moments, making decisions.

"There's very different ways you can do it from a coaching perspective. There can be rewards, there can be consequences.

"You have to build an environment where every single thing we're doing has got winning and losing involved in it because if there's no winning and losing, no consequence, no reward, human beings will then, unless it's ingrained in you, might not hit the levels you're expecting every day in training."

Bojan Radulovic went off with what looked like a broken collarbone but Drury has not given up hope of the centre-forward playing again this season.

"It didn't sound too good, to be honest," said Drury. "You felt a crack in his shoulder, I don't know if you can tell. We'll get that scanned, we'll get that looked at."