Shrewsbury Town v Huddersfield Town: Michael Duff tells Terriers to smile - and do not wait for a shock

It sounds like it has all the ingredients of the kind of “grit-your-teeth” performance needed as the business end of a football season comes into view. Terriers coach Michael Duff just wants them to enjoy it.

But he also wants them to take matters into their own hands, and not wait for him to put things right as he did at Barnsley on Saturday, where 0-1 at half-time became 2-1 at the final whistle.

The Terriers will be under pressure to build on that with the three sides immediately outside the play-off places only a win behind them.

And having recently seen his side roughed up by a Northampton Town team themselves in the relegation skirmish, Duff will be hoping for signs his players are made of sterner stuff than they showed that day at Sixfields.

But life could be awful lot worse than playing a game of football. It is not even as if they are scrapping to stay in the division like their hosts, still 22nd in League One even after the "bounce" of five wins in 16 games since Gareth Ainsworth took over as manager.

Above all, Duff wants to see his Huddersfield players with smiles on their faces.

"I mentioned it to the players two weeks ago," he says. "We've got the astro (synthetic pitch) at the training ground and we had a pre-match meeting before travelling to the Reading game.

"I said to them to look at the kids playing on it, I think they were under-10s, under-11s, something like that, just running around enjoying themselves and not worrying about how much money they were getting paid or if they were going to win or lose.

"They're young people who are fortunate enough now to earn a good living doing what every young child wants to do. Sometimes you do have to remind them that they're in a fortunate position and enjoy it. Play with a smile on their face.

"But it is their job, it is their livelihood, so it's getting the balance.

"If you're going to get beaten, get beaten running around enjoying yourselves."

Duff is not sure his players have always got the balance right in his first season at the club.

"Wining games is very hard to do and supporters sometimes get frustrated because they'd love to be doing it," he says. "I'm pretty sure every supporter would have given their right arm to put the shirt on.

"It's dealing with that responsibility. Our players have the privilege of wearing the shirt and that's a pressure they have to be able to deal with.

"When you win a game one of the best feelings in the world is standing in front of 4,500 fans (as Huddersfield had at Barnsley).

"When you're playing for a big club, there's pressure. it's how do you deal with that pressure?

"At times in the season when we come under pressure we haven't been great at dealing with it. You're hoping your habits will kick in.

"It (winning) can't be more important to Shrewsbury than it is to us, that's one thing we re-iterated quite a lot to the players on Monday.

"They’ve picked up quite few results, they've definitely picked up since (Ainsworth)'s come in, and even when they have been beaten, it's been by the odd goal.

"We'll be fully aware of their threats if they are physical – (strikers) Vadaine Oliver (on loan from Bradford City) and John Marquis are both big, physical players, George Lloyd I had at Cheltenham – 5ft 8in but jumps 6ft 4in.

"But if we turn up and we do things right, we feel like we've got enough to win the game."

This month's 3-2 defeat in Northampton was a warning as to what will happen if they do not. Duff has certainly not forgotten the Cobblers showing.

"It's dealing with different types of football," he says. "Ultimately, we got beaten up against Northampton.

"We didn't deal with it. We did when we were 3-0 down but it's too late then. You can't choose your moments.

"The players didn't go, 'Right, we'll wait until 60 minutes when we're 3-0 down.'

"But don't wait for that shock. Too many times we're having to take somebody off at half-time or give a little reminder.

"We don't change shape that often, the messages are pretty much the same, and it's having that mentality from minute one to minute 90, not ebbing and flowing."

With Tawanda Chirewa and David Kasumu fit after cramp, Duff will pick from the same group of players as against Barnsley, minus the suspended Brodie Spencer.

"We're low on numbers, we have been for a long time,” he says. “We'll have 11 players so whatever XI we pick will hopefully give a good account of themselves and win."

The hope is that defender Nigel Lonwijk might be fit for Saturday's visit of Peterborough United.