Clark promises to bounce back after seven mad minutes end Town dream

The Terriers’ dreams of kicking off the 2011-12 campaign in the Championship were cruelly ended yesterday with a 3-0 defeat to Peterborough United at Old Trafford.

It meant a heartbreaking end to what has been a record-breaking season for Huddersfield who, until the late flurry of goals that saw Tommy Rowe, Craig Mackail-Smith and Grant McCann find the net, had not been beaten in 2011.

That 27-game unbeaten run meant the Terriers fans in a crowd of 48,410 had travelled across the Pennines full of confidence and belief that their side’s 10-year absence from the second tier of English football would soon be at an end.

By the final whistle, however, those hopes had been dashed to leave Clark and his players facing another season in League One.

The Terriers manager said: “I am hurting not just for me but for my owner as well. He is a good man and was the first in the dressing room afterwards.

“I am also hurting for those fantastic fans. They made it an unbelievable day.”

The game was settled in a crazy seven-minute spell that saw Posh score three quickfire goals without reply.

Until then, the final had been an even affair with Peterborough twice missing excellent opportunities in the first half before Town roared back after the interval to hit the crossbar through Danny Ward and go close on several other occasions.

All that, however, counted for nothing once Rowe had opened the scoring on 78 minutes. Just 87 seconds later, Mackail-Smith had doubled Posh’s advantage with a deflected effort and Huddersfield’s promotion hopes were all-but over.

Clark admitted to feeling distraught at the final whistle that his side had missed out, just 12 months on from suffering play-off heartache with a semi-final defeat to Millwall.

The Town manager has, however, promised to respond positively and intends to draw on the experience of not only that defeat to the Lions but also his time as a player when part of the Sunderland team beaten on penalties by Charlton Athletic in a play-off final.

He said: “This is hurting just as much (as that 1998 Division One final with Sunderland), and that was horrendous.

“But I will pick myself up now. I know people say I wear my heart on my sleeve and will be asking, ‘We will see what he is about.’

“I know what it takes to bounce back. Look what happened after that Charlton v Sunderland (final), we went on to romp the league the next year.

“Then there was the semi-final last year. I knew what I had to do and I went out and did it.

“We have had an unbelievable season but we haven’t achieved our goal.

“There are a lot of things going through my mind but the biggest thing eating away at me is that it got to 3-0. It looks so bad for my team and it wasn’t like that.”

Clark, who had previously promised to sit down at the end of the season with chairman Dean Hoyle to discuss a contract extension beyond the 12 months remaining on his existing deal, said: “I need to get away and spend some quality time with my family.

“Those lads in the dressing room are my No 2 team; my wife and my three children are my No 1 team.

“I need to spend a bit of quality time with them and get my batteries recharged. I am physically and mentally drained right now.

“I need to recharge the batteries and come back to see where we can go.”

Town finished the regular season on 87 points, eight ahead of Peterborough United in fourth place.

On yesterday’s game, Clark said: “It was a crazy eight minutes, or however long it was. For half-an-hour, we had been the dominant team and if anyone was going to score it looked like being us.

“We knew they had a set-piece expert (Grant McCann) with fantastic delivery. For two of the goals, he proved that.

“When we were on top, I did think we would get a goal if we kept doing the right things.

“Credit to Peterborough, because they withstood what we threw at them and came back with a treble.

“The first goal was a touch on a free-kick, Ian Bennett says the second one was a deflection, and then the lads lost a bit of shape.

“We were trying to throw caution to the wind but couldn’t make it happen. I thought the final score was harsh.

“People will look at 3-0 and think, ‘Wow, that must have been a one-sided game’. But it wasn’t, it really wasn’t.

“I feel for the players. We knew this was a one-off game and a final so someone had to win. But the players should not feel ashamed about anything that has happened this season.

“They have broken numerous records and run through the proverbial brick wall for me. The scoreline was harsh, to be brutally honest.

“Though that is not taking anything away from Peterborough. I am hurting but the one consolation is he (manager Darren Ferguson) is a good man.

“He has a good staff and there are good people at the club. If it wasn’t going to be us, I am glad it has happened to good people.”

Once behind, Clark responded by bringing on Danny Cadamarteri, top scorer Jordan Rhodes and Alan Lee but all to no avail.

Asked if he would have done anything differently with the benefit of hindsight, the Town manager said: “Are you going to start about Jordan Rhodes and 4-3-3 are you? About this away system, is that what you call it?

“Well, that is what Barcelona played at Wembley (in Saturday’s Champions League final). It isn’t about systems. We were the dominant team.

“The system didn’t contribute to the free-kick. You fellas get obsessed with systems.”

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Huddersfield report, analysis and reaction: Pages 2-3.