Huddersfield Town players buying into Danny Cowley’s ‘no excuses’ culture

That is because Huddersfield Town manager Danny Cowley has coined the word to describe the type of attitude that he wants from his team.

The Terriers travelled to Charlton Athletic on Tuesday night with countless injury problems and nearly missed the game entirely when their coach was grid-locked in traffic.

But, ably assisted by some of the club’s academy graduates, Huddersfield kept Charlton at bay before teenager Matty Daly smashed home the winning goal in the 92nd minute.

That was Huddersfield’s third 1-0 win away from home in their last seven outings on the road and a victory that will fill them with confidence when they head to Wigan Athletic tomorrow afternoon.

“There could have been an awful lot of excuses,” said the Terriers chief.

“We did a piece of work with the players around how we won and why we won and tried to sum up the reasons in three words.

“The togetherness, the spirit, the resilience and the determination were right up there.

“And I think we created our own word which was ‘excuse-less,’ and there was certainly no excuses.”

Cowley has put a huge emphasis on squad unity since his arrival in September and is even willing to allow players to leave the club if he feels their attitude is having a negative impact on the dressing room.

Terence Kongolo, Adama Diakhaby, Isaac Mbenza, Reece Brown and Herbert Bockhorn could all be allowed to depart in the January transfer window if the right bid comes along.

All five players are understood to be fit but are not being considered for selection despite numerous injury concerns for Town.

“The spirit every single day is growing and we now have a like-minded dressing room,” continued Cowley.

“And when you have that and everyone shares similar values and has a common cause then you can start to achieve things.

“We have found a balance in terms of the group and the dynamic. We don’t like energy sappers. We like enthusiasm and we want to work with players that have passion, not only passion for football but passion for Huddersfield Town.

“They are the ingredients and the characters that we like.

“Of course it is also about the technical, tactical and the physical and we definitely need to try and help the group in that area.

“Getting a few back from the physio room and back on the grass will help in that aspect as well.”

Cowley has confirmed that interest from home and abroad has already been expressed in the transfer-listed players.

He added: “Interest has already sparked up. The guys behind the scenes have been very busy with the amount of interest shown.

“We always anticipate interest in our players because they are good players with certain qualities that would naturally interest other clubs.

“So there has been interest, not just from this country but from around Europe – and the plan is to take all the information and try and make some intelligent decisions for this football club moving forward.”

Tomorrow’s opponents sit four points behind the Terriers and are only kept off the bottom of the table by Barnsley.

The Latics have not won a home game since October 20, losing three and drawing the other.

That draw did come against promotion-chasing West Brom, who sit comfortably in the automatic promotion spots.

Cowley attended Wigan’s 1-1 draw with the Baggies on Wednesday evening and is in no mood to take Paul Cook’s side lightly.

He said: “They are a tough opponent. Nicky and I went to watch them play West Brom and they played really well on the night and deserved to win the game.

“They made seven changes and freshened their group up, they have the squad depth to be able to do that whereas we haven’t.

“They asked an awful lot of questions of an outstanding West Brom team and carried an awful lot of threat in wide areas.

“They looked good on the counter attack and but for one lapse in concentration, they could have won the game. We understand that they are a really good team.

“If you look at their season they have got on the wrong side of close games and there are a few games which they should’ve taken more from.

“That is what we have seen and they definitely haven’t got value for their performances and we are under no illusions exactly how tough it is going to be.

“We had a long trip on Tuesday but they played on Wednesday so we are going to need to recover well and prepare well to get a good result.”

Huddersfield will have Trevoh Chalobah back for tomorrow’s clash while Lewis O’Brien and Fraizer Campbell are racing to be fit.