Toughest challenge yet for Neil Warnock as sorry Huddersfield Town deliver own downfall

It was delivered by followers of Coventry City as opposed to Huddersfield Town and came heavily laden with sarcasm and was far from sweet music.

Standing in his technical area, the man himself would have heard it and felt it.

When it comes to the blame game in Huddersfield’s sorry season thus far, Warnock is the last person who can be censured for the bedraggled state Town find themselves in.

Scarcely able to believe what he had been seeing in front of him in the second period - when his side shot themselves in both feet, let alone one and were trailing 3-0 with all hope gone - the Town chief would have been forgiven for thinking he was better off back in his beloved Cornwall enjoying his retirement.

Of course, that’s not Warnock’s style. A proud manager - and a very good one - the Yorkshireman is no quitter and loves a scrap at the Championship coalface.

Equally, he knows better than anyone that this latest mission - to somehow save Town from relegation - represents the hardest one of his epic time in management.

“I’ve never been in one as bad as this,” Warnock said afterwards with no hint of understatement.

It will take something ‘monumental’ to turn it around, he correctly opined.

It was made that bit harder after this self-inflicted, damaging defeat.

Last Monday, Warnock let his players know in no uncertain terms that he would not tolerate a replication of some of the poor concessions that afflicted his side in their 4-0 defeat at Burnley.

Seven days on, his words had clearly fallen on deaf ears on an occasion when Town gift-wrapped not just one goal but three.

After bitter, painful blows late on at Hull, Blackpool and Wigan and grim episodes against Stoke, Burnley and now Coventry, you wonder how much more punishment Town’s players can take in a brutal 2023 so far.

It will require all of Warnock’s canny man-management skills to lift them, starting with Tuesday’s game with Bristol City.

Having someone with the experience of Warnock - who has seen every situation that the game has to offer - is probably the one thing that Town have got going for them.

Yet as far as the numbers go, they are pretty damning. So far this calendar year, Town have shipped 21 goals in ten league games and scored just seven times. They have netted just twice in their last five matches.

Damning was the word to describe their first concession just past the half-hour mark. Michal Helik's ghastly mistimed back pass was latched onto by the player who Warnock rates as the best striker in the Championship in Viktor Gyokeres. There was only one outcome.

After racing clear, his dinked finish past Nicholas Bilokapic was instinctive and delightful.

The omens for a bad day for the hosts started before kick-off in truth, with news of a win for relegation rivals Cardiff in the early kick-off. An early hamstring injury for Jaheim Headley, match-winner in the last home game, added to that feeling.

In fairness, Town - with Joe Hungbo posing issues with his pace and trickery and Headley's replacement in Brahima Diarra also providing positivity - were decent and marginally the better side in the opening 30 minutes. Then, Gyokeres scored and things started to unravel.

The second half proved an unmitigated disaster and ended with home sections sparsely populated while a Sky Blue party was played out in the away end.

For ex-Town boss Mark Robins, who famously left straight after a horror 4-0 defeat on the first day of 2014-15, he could finally reflect on the clock going round at last.

He was left to savour another 4-0 scoreline, albeit a more pleasurable one for him. His play-off chasing side looked the part on the restart.

Gustavo Hamer - a class act alongside Gyokeres - made it 2-0 after ghosting away from Scott High and firing in a low shot then beat Bilokapic rather too easily.

After a forceful opening 45 minutes and going close to scoring twice, High had it much, much harder after the interval. He was not alone.Just before an hour had elapsed, High was played into trouble by a loose pass infield from Matt Lowton.

Hamer was on it in a flash and Gyokeres did the rest with a deadly finish, the cue for some home supporters to head for the exits.

A stoppage-time fourth from Tyler Walker, set up splendidly by Gyokeres put the tin lid on a desperate second half. Even with Warnock, you fear for Town.

Huddersfield: Bilokapic; Helik, Lees, Pearson (Rhodes 63); Lowton, Hogg (Camara 80), High, Headley (Diarra 18); Rudoni; Hungbo, Ward (Simpson 80). Substitutes unused: Vaclik, Edmonds-Green, Knockaert.

Coventry: Wilson; McNally, McFadzean, Doyle (Rose 87); Dabo (Norton-Cuffy 70), Hamer, Eccles, Wilson-Esbrand (Bidwell 62); Howley (Maguire 70); Gyokeres, Godden (Walker 70). Substitutes unused: Moore, Burroughs.

Referee: D Webb (Co.Durham).