Huddersfield Town v Bournemouth: We have time to fight for our survival, insists Mounie

He reiterated the point yesterday at his press briefing for Bournemouth’s visit to the John Smith’s Stadium, the 46-year-old insisting: “I can only see positives out of being in the relegation places.

“We are in a corner and when you are in a corner, there is only one direction you can go – that is to try and collect points and climb the table to survive.”

Steve Mounie, the club’s record £11.5m signing, may not have quite gone as far as Wagner in assessing Town’s fall into the bottom three as a positive. Neither, though, is the six-goal top scorer fazed by the development.

“It is very tight and a lot of teams have the same points,” he said. “You can win one game and be 11th in the league so, for me, it’s not the time to worry about maintaining Premier League. We have 12 games to go so it is time to take points. We have time to fight for our place in the top league.”

The noon scheduling of tomorrow’s clash has done Bournemouth supporters few favours, with the official buses setting off at 1.45am from Weymouth.

Town could say the same thing about having to face a Cherries side buoyed by back-to-back wins over Chelsea and Stoke City.

A plus for the Terriers, however, is the manner in which the attacking verve of earlier in the season was rediscovered in the midweek FA Cup triumph at Birmingham City. More of the same against Eddie Howe’s men will be most welcome.

Mounie added: “We scored four goals and that hasn’t happened since Watford (on December 16, Town’s last league win). We need to score goals.

“In the Premier League we need to win games and to do that you have to score goals. We don’t care if we concede two goals because if you score three you win the game. So, for me it was important to start scoring goals. Good for Incey (Tom Ince) to get confidence and for me the same. We can take that into the league games.”