Vaughan’s return will be ‘massive’ boost for Town

Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at home to struggling Birmingham City means the Terriers have won just once in eight league outings and lost four of their last five.

While such a slump in form is not enough to freeze any supporter to the bone, memories of last season – when Town suffered a truly miserable winter that saw hopes of a play-off challenge in November give way to a relegation scrap come February – are enough to leave some supporters fearing a possible repeat of last year’s winter woes.

Certainly, the manner of the Birmingham defeat was enough to get the alarm bells ringing with Huddersfield producing a performance that manager Mark Robins later described as “abject” and “awful”.

Despite that, midfield player Keith Southern – who wore the captain’s armband against the Blues after Peter Clarke was forced out of the action early on through injury – insists last season’s struggles will not be repeated.

“No, not at all,” said the 29-year-old when asked about the chances of Town suffering a similar slump this time around. “There is a hell of a long way to go. This is a tight league and a tough league.

“Look at QPR who have spent millions of pounds. Are they winning every game? No. Sometimes, fans have to dampen expectation and bear with us.

“This is a growing club and a club that is developing. We have only been back in the Championship two years and a little bit of patience is needed from everyone.

“We held our hands up after Saturday and said it wasn’t good enough. We have to do better – and we will do better.”

The manner of Huddersfield’s collapse a year ago is laid bare by a glance back to the corresponding stage of last season.

After 15 games, Simon Grayson’s Town were sitting seventh in the table with 24 points. Hull City, meanwhile, were fourth on 28 points, Leeds 15th, Sheffield Wednesday 20th and Barnsley 21st.

However, while the latter quartet of Yorkshire clubs all finished within a couple of places of their early November standing, the Terriers endured a slump that was only matched by Middlesbrough, who slid from second after 15 games to a final position of 16th.

Huddersfield actually won their 16th game of the campaign at Oakwell to move up a place into the play-offs. The club’s next victory, however, came nearly four months later – by which time Grayson had been sacked and the Terriers were 19th.

It took a further four games – and the appointment of Robins – for Town to win another league game, after which they finished reasonably strongly and avoided relegation on the final day.

The return to form of James Vaughan – who netted eight times in his final 11 appearances of a loan spell from Norwich City – played a major part in Huddersfield rescuing their season in the nick of time.

For Southern, Vaughan’s impending return to the starting XI after serving a three-game ban is another reason why Town’s season can soon be up and running.

“Getting Vaughany back is massive,” said Southern of a team-mate who, before his red card at Leicester, had netted 11 times this season. “He is a big personality, both on and off the pitch. He has been frustrated to miss these three games.

“He is a big bonus,. His goals record speaks for itself. He gives us that attacking threat. When you get the ball in the box, he gets his head on it.

“In the last three games, we have found ourselves a goal behind in them all. That makes life difficult.

“We turned it round against Leeds (to win 3-2 after Matt Smith had opened the scoring for the visitors inside two minutes) but couldn’t do it against Wigan and Birmingham. It is always difficult to turn things round once behind and that is why having Vaughany back will be such a big thing. He adds to our chances of getting the first goal.”

Town’s next fixture is a big one, Sheffield Wednesday away. After that, Robins’s side host leaders Burnley before back-to-back away games at Bolton and Ipswich.

It is a run that needs to yield points, as Southern readily agrees.

“We were pretty poor (in losing to Birmingham last Saturday). Birmingham had gone into the game on the back of a couple of poor results. Our fans probably turned up feeling a bit over expectant, thinking we just had to turn up and win. But this league is not like that.

“It is a really, really tough league. Birmingham frustrated us and got men behind the ball before doing us on set-pieces. It was poor stuff from our point of view and continued our run of losing games going into an international break.

“We don’t seem to be able to win a game going into the international break. (Town lost to Barnsley and Watford before previous breaks). That was the third time.

“Fortunately, there aren’t any more international breaks. What a break gives us, though, is a chance to get back on the training pitch and to make up for it against Sheffield Wednesday.”

Town learned yesterday that Clarke is likely to be sidelined for three months rather than the original estimate of two.

A scan revealed his knee injury will take longer to heal, extending his absence into February.