Town happy to '˜fly under radar'

Town consolidated third place and moved within four points of second-placed Albion following Tuesday night’s 1-0 victory over Championship promotion rivals Reading to record their sixth successive league win at this level for the first time since November 1999.

Huddersfield’s latest triumph, their 11th in their past 13 league matches, increased the gap between themselves and the side currently just outside of the top six in Norwich City to 13 points, with Town also having a game in hand on the Canaries, yet to visit the John Smith’s Stadium.

Conscious that their top-six place is looking increasingly secure, many Town supporters – with good reason and no vestige of over-confidence either – are starting to turn their attentions to a possible tilt for the top two.

The prospect is further enhanced by the fact that either leaders Newcastle or Brighton – or possibly both – will drop points when they meet at the Amex Stadium next Tuesday, while the Magpies also visit Huddersfield on Saturday week.

Offering a player’s perspective, Schindler has stressed that while Huddersfield fully respect the credentials of both teams, they have no cause to fear them either and can ‘attack’ the top two, with leaders Newcastle just five points ahead of them in the table.

The German centre-half feels that both clubs are also saddled with the full weight of expectations from their fanbase and the media – in marked contrast to Town, whose supporters are happy to enjoy the ride in what is shaping up to be the West Yorkshire outfit’s most memorable season since top-flight promotion in 1969-70.

On whether the top two are under more pressure, Schindler said: “Yes. I respect them, of course – I have said that these two are obviously the best teams in the league, but as you saw when Brighton played here, you can win against every team.

“I think it is quite good as we can fly under the radar. I see the reports and on Sky and everywhere, it is almost (always) about those top two teams.

“It is good for us and we can work and just concentrate on football and we do not have to worry about all the other things.

“We have 14 games to go and anything can happen now. But of course, in the position we have now, we want to keep it and maybe attack these two.

“It is really hard because they win almost every game, but we will try to perform as good as we can and let us see what happens.”

Town’s remarkable season is shaping up to be the biggest individual team story so far in the Championship in 2016-17 and when pressed on the main reason to the secret of the club’s success, Schindler believes that one particular facet stands out above all others.

Namely, the vast number of contributions from across Town’s squad so far this season, with a case in point arriving in the club’s last two league fixtures.

While it was captain Tommy Smith who proved the unlikely goal hero in netting a dramatic stoppage-time winner in the 3-2 derby triumph at Rotherham United on February 14, Tuesday’s decisive contribution arrived from another unexpected source in Philip Billing, who netted his first ever goal at the John Smith’s Stadium.

It was the second successive Championship home game in which a Town player had struck a late winner with his first-ever goal on home soil, with Michael Hefele having previously struck the telling blow in the 2-1 triumph over Leeds United on February 5.

Such contributions are typical of a season when the load has been shared at Town and can only augur well for the run-in, according to Schindler.

He said: “We are in really good form. But we have to keep this and have the hunger to win games. I am so proud of this team because the personnel can easily change and the performance will not go down and that is a massive quality.

“This is a big quality at a really busy time now and we hope we can keep this run going. I have never played in a team with this quality and this hunger and desire. It is outstanding. It is mainly close results and it shows how compact we are and how good we work as a team.

“It is also not lucky and if you win that amount of games, you cannot speak about luck.”

Schindler admits he was especially pleased for Billing after his goalscoring input on Tuesday – revealing that the young midfielder had to dig deep after his strength-sapping exertions against Manchester City on Sunday. Schindler added: “Philip came and said to me that he was not sure if he could keep on playing. I just said stay in there because I had a feeling he could do something really good in this game. That is football and he scores the goal.”

Calm before storm: Page 22