Swindon Town 4 Huddersfield Town 1: ‘Garbage’ blast from Clark after his fringe players fail to impress

Despite dominating possession for large parts of the game, the Terriers only managed to register three shots on goal and, at times, looked short of ideas when trying to break down their opponents.

But rather than criticise individual players, Clark launched a searing attack on his whole team’s performance.

“It wasn’t a case of missing Jordan in this game because we didn’t get enough balls in the box and we didn’t try and get any shots on target. I thought Lee (Novak) and Alan (Lee) played well in the first half but in the second half we just absolute garbage,” said Clark.

“We are giving rubbish goals away, and we can’t keep doing it. We gave too many silly fouls away too cheaply. If we just keep chopping players down willy-nilly instead of staying on our feet it will keep costing us goals.”

Before the game, Clark, who made seven changes to his starting line-up, challenged his fringe players to put in a performance to show why they were deserving of a regular place in his league side.

But the manager seemed less than impressed with many of his charges and felt that the club had exited the competition with a “little bit of a whimper”.

He added: “I know in my mind how many people have enhanced their reputation today. We’re extremely disappointed and the players are disappointed with themselves.”

The League One high-fliers had looked well on course for victory after they grabbed a deserved lead through Novak midway through the first half.

Having received the ball 20 yards from goal, from Tommy Miller, the striker was given too much space and punished his opponents with low drive.

The tie turned on its head in three minutes of the first half as two defensive lapses allowed Swindon to grab the lead.

They equalised in the 36th minute after Town’s defence had failed to pick up towering defender Aden Flint at the back post from Matt Ritchie’s free-kick and then Simon Ferry latched on to some indecision in the area and squared the ball to Raffaele De Vita to sweep home.

Clark’s men were only to threaten twice more, but were thwarted by Wes Foderingham, who smartly tipped over a dipping volley from Novak and parried Lee’s drive.

As Town pushed for the equaliser, gaps started to appear and Swindon capitalised in the 76th minute when Mehdi Kerrouche finished a neat counter-attack.

Ferry pounced late on after Nick Colgan parried a shot.

Huddersfield Town: Colgan; Woods, McCombe, Kay, Naysmith (Cadamateri, 82); McDermott (Arfield, 54), Miller, Robinson, Roberts (Ward, 61); Novak, Lee. Unused substitutes: Bennett, P Clarke, Johnson, Crooks.

Swindon Town: Foderingham; Caddis, Flint, McCormack, Kennedy; Ritchie, Ferry, Risser, Gabilondo (Esajas, 57); De Vita (J Smith, 82), Connell (Kerrouche, 74). Unused substitutes: P Smith, N Thompson, L Thompson, Storey.

Referee: P Gibbs (West Midlands).

Man of the match: Simon Ferry.