Huddersfield Town 0 Rotherham United 2: Shield goes up as Millers head for safety after derby triumph

A third away win of the campaign and their first league victory in Huddersfield since 1964 has left them nine points clear of the bottom three and literally in fine shape to beat the drop, believes Kari Arnason.

In fact, he wishes he played in a defence which has himself sat in front of it!

The Icelander was moved out of the back four to form a barrier alongside Richard Smallwood and the system worked to such an extent that the lacklustre hosts tested goalkeeper Adam Collin just twice in spite of the Millers being reduced to 10 men in the 74th minute when Lee Frecklington collected his second yellow card.

By then, Rotherham were 2-0 ahead, the outstanding Arnason having bundled the ball home following a driving run and cross from former Town right-back Jack Hunt in the 44th minute and Conor Sammon having fired home the second in the 60th minute after Arnason and Frecklington had combined down the middle.

Arnason was in his new role following injury to Paul Green and Sammon was back in the attack when former Town striker Danny Ward injured himself in training.

It was a winning gamble by manager Steve Evans to move Arnason out and give debuts to loan signings Daniel Lafferty and Farrend Rawson – the 28th newcomer since the summer – in defence.

While left-back Lafferty was given a torrid time by Joe Lolley, in for the injured Harry Bunn, in the first half, once the former Kidderminster striker withdrew with cramp, Huddersfield posed little to no threat.

Arnason, who had been denied by a marvellous save from Alex Smithies before he scored, said: “With this kind of performance and a solid shape to the team I don’t have any fears at all.

“I enjoy it in midfield. You can do more of what you want but obviously you are thinking about the structure of the team and you are trying to organise from there.

“You can be a link from the back to the front and it’s easier because you know what it’s like at the back. You don’t want to be caught out one-on-one so you need to cover the centre-backs and when you see space in front of you, you need to drive the ball in there. That’s what we’ve been lacking a lot before and I thought I brought that to the team and was something we needed.

“It makes it so much easier when you have two people in front shielding you and you also have players who can break through and have a bit about them.

“It’s all about the shape. If you keep a solid shape then you should concede a minimum amount of chances but we have been going gung-ho trying to pressurise teams when it’s not on and being left vulnerable at the back instead of keeping a shape and getting some cover in the right area.”

Of his goal, he admitted: “I tried to head it at first but it ricocheted off someone so it hit my shoulder and dropped for me. The fans started celebrating even before I scored!”

Arnason has always been confident that Rotherham’s first season back in the Championship would not be their last but confessed: “I was never worried about us getting relegated but there have been a lot of changes here and there. So it is sometimes hard when you don’t have that same core to keep the same character which we showed last season when we always seemed to come back from 1-0 down, 2-0 down and we kept going regardless.

“But obviously we are trying to build a new team so sometimes you get bad results like we have been getting because there has been a lot of chopping and changing so let’s hope that we can come out of it on top and keep performing like this.

“There is definitely a bit to do. No-one at the club thinks we are anywhere near to safety so we will have to keep grinding it out, keep being solid and hope for the best.”

Huddersfield may believe their job is already done but play-maker Jacob Butterfield was brutally honest in his assessment of the hosts’ performance following their third defeat in a week.

“We were just miles off it and are very disappointed. We let ourselves down from start to finish.

“There was no intensity, no character, no belief. We were just flat. It’s hard to put your finger on one reason why. We were five yards off the pace, we just looked tired, we had no real ideas on the ball, had no inventiveness and were just poor.

“We need to get ourselves out of this slump straight away. That’s a definite. It’s been a nightmare week with three defeats. There is a lot of toughening up to do.

“We have to take it on the chin and put it right sooner than later. Last week we were sitting 12th in the league and thinking it’s not been a bad season and I don’t know if, as a group, we have taken our foot off the gas or what but we have to look at those last three performances.”