Swansea City v Huddersfield Town - What is the Terriers’ survival target

Danny Cowley has set Huddersfield Town a mini-target on the road to safety and wants them to achieve it in the next seven days.
Huddersfield Town's Andy King. (Picture: Tony Johnson)Huddersfield Town's Andy King. (Picture: Tony Johnson)
Huddersfield Town's Andy King. (Picture: Tony Johnson)

The 50-point mark is Cowley’s watershed for staying in the Championship, but he wants to get to 40 as a staging post as quickly as possible.

Victory at Swansea City tonight will take the Terriers to 39, and they host Bristol City on Tuesday and Charlton Athletic next week.

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Although experienced midfielder Andy King thinks Cowley is being over-cautious, he thinks it is good to always have targets to strive for.

Huddersfield Town's Andy King in his Leicester days. (Picture: PA)Huddersfield Town's Andy King in his Leicester days. (Picture: PA)
Huddersfield Town's Andy King in his Leicester days. (Picture: PA)

“In this division we know if we get to 50 points it puts us in a very, very strong position and that’s been the objective we’ve set,” commented Cowley.

“Our aim is to get to 50 points as quickly as we can, and then it’s about redefining our targets.

“I don’t believe in looking beyond that and the focus over the next week is trying to get to 40 points. Then there’s a bit of light at the end of the tunnel and we’re that much closer to the main objective.”

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King was part of a Leicester City side whose manager Claudio Ranieri would not rest until they got to the 40-point which protected them against Premier League relegation – even in the season they won the title.

“The manager’s set a target of 50 points,” he said. “I’m not sure it will be that high come the end of the season but I think he wants the almost guaranteed safety.

“We’ve got three games in the next week to try and get to 40 and hopefully get over it so you know you’re only three or four away from reaching 50 points. The sooner we can get to 40, the better.”

King made his first Terriers start in last week’s 1-1 draw at Derby County, and hopes he and his team can build on that in South Wales.

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“Derby was good, I really enjoyed the feeling of being back out there from the start,” said King.

“I thought the goal they scored came against the run of play and I thought we deserved at least a point against the team with the best home record in the league this season, so to dominate like we did for periods was really good.

“Swansea are a similar team, another possession-based team. I’m sure we’ll be able to exploit their weaknesses if we set up in a similar fashion to against Derby.”