We Are Terriers

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comAnother season is done and dusted for Huddersfield Town, for better or worse, and that gives the We Are Terriers podcast a natural place to give our thoughts on the 2025/26 campaign.Where were mistakes made, and where were Town hit by unforeseen issues? Might a sporting director have made a difference last summer? Who rose to the challenge, and who disa…

The following are selected highlights of Jon Stead’s pre-match press conference ahead of facing Wimbledon. You can hear the full thing, as well as Murray Wallace’s thoughts, on our podcast feed or by hitting the play button above. You can also check out our weekly digest for full team news.Jon SteadKatherine Hannah (BBC Radio Leeds) Obviously, passion is running really high after the Mansfield game last weekend, and you actually said [after the game] that given everything that had gone into the preparation, it felt like a bit of a slap in the face. I just wondered what reaction you’d had from your players in the aftermath of that, and whether actually any of them apologised to yourself and Martin.Yeah, we had a lot of apologies, actually. Yeah, I think they recognised that they let themselves down. I think the slap in the face is just all the work that goes into everything, and I didn’t see that result coming. I just didn’t see it coming. So the shock of it was such a slap. It was just really, really difficult to kind of compute and understand.When you have a couple of days to look back on it and you kind of review it — and we watch the games back two or three times, as we do, and we pick the bones out of it — you recognise that there was just a real lack of belief.I think after the results that went the way they did on the Tuesday prior to that game, and kind of the mathematical inevitability that we weren’t going to make the play-offs, I think there was just a flatness and just a bit of a lull, and I think we felt that in terms of the result.Performance-wise, it wasn’t as good as it has been. It wasn’t there. I mean, what’s mad — and I don’t get stuck on data, because I think everybody can see from the result and the way that game felt that it wasn’t right — but the data showed us that we were again ahead in terms of shots, all the metrics that we’d normally count as a good performance were there, and [Mansfield] had three shots on target and scored four goals. So it’s, yeah, difficult.KH: I guess it’s very easy to just go, ‘well, they’ve downed tools, they’re not trying, nothing to play for’…clearly from the apologies you’ve had, what did the players actually say to you to convince you that that wasn’t the case?Yeah, well, listen, we’ve been with this group long enough now and seen enough from them through these games that they’ve given everything. They have given everything. There’s been a complete turn in spirit and togetherness, in passion, in fight for the club, and we’ve seen it in abundance.So I’m looking towards this weekend now as that game being a bit of a one-off. If you have one poor performance and one little lapse of concentration and not being quite at it for one game out of six, then across the space of the season, you’d take that, so I’m hoping that that’s the case.But the players knew that they let each other down. They knew they let the staff down and the club as well, and that that performance didn’t fit in line with the rest of them that we’ve seen.Again, there’s a lot of reasons behind that, and I think the biggest one is we spoke to the players at half-time, actually, at Leyton Orient, and just said, ‘look, believe. Believe in yourselves more’. I’m a very positive person in general, probably a bit too positive at times, but the belief that we had, myself and Martin and the staff, that we could get to a position where we could be going into this last game with everything to play for, we had 100 per cent belief in that — and I’m not sure at times the players did. I think that’s just an accumulation of difficult moments throughout the season that’s kind of knocked them and knocked the confidence. We got to a point where I think we’d picked that back up, and we’ve got there with it, and then you get another knock at Bolton and you have that frustration, and then the results that follow on that Tuesday make it a very difficult end to the season.So like I say, I’m hopeful, and I’m really pushing for them to show everybody that it was a blip on Saturday and that that wasn’t a performance that they can hold themselves to, because the others have been very good.KH: The chairman, Kevin Nagle, put out a very impassioned statement after last weekend’s game as well, and made no bones about it. He’s very much going to be watching this game on Saturday, in his words, sort of talking about who’s playing for the shirt. I just wondered if you could give us any insight into what conversations you’ve perhaps collectively had with the chairman over the last seven days, and how he’s feeling about everything going into this final game.Yeah, well, I think a lot’s riding on it. I think there’s a lot of things around staff riding on it as well. There’s things about players, decisions for their future. So I think everybody’s got real things to play for.It’s probably the opposite compared to it being billed as a dead rubber, with obviously Wimbledon winning their game last week and securing their place in the league for next season.In terms of how we look at it and how Kevin looks at it, there’s everything to play for — that should be the case every game, that’s what this business is about, that’s why we do it, because everything is on the line every time you walk through the door here, and it should be like that, because you need to have that to be an elite environment, and that’s what we’re looking to build and create.So yeah, there’s not been many conversations, but I don’t think there needs to be, because I think the tweet was very clear. Everybody needs to be on it.You need to show how much you’re committed. You need to make sure that that’s very, very visible to see, because sometimes that’s the only way you can show it, is out on the pitch. Not me talking to you, not the players talking to you. It needs to be shown, it needs to be felt and seen and heard by everybody else outside in that stand. So yeah, the pressure’s on in terms of that, because everybody is playing and competing and working hard for their futures, and that future needs to be — if you want it to be with Huddersfield Town, then you’ve got to put it in.KH: There’s a lot of big decisions to make, I think, over the coming weeks. And inevitably you maybe need a bit of time for the dust to settle and people to reflect a little bit. But how soon do you think we might be able to expect some kind of resolution about where the club goes going forward, whether Liam Manning comes back, and on yourself and Martin and the playing staff as well? Are there any timescales when we might know a little more about the direction the future of the club will go in?No, I mean, there’s no timescales as such. I think all these things, I think we’re all clear that they need to be resolved as quickly as possible. There’s a lot that goes into big decisions at football clubs, and they do take time.I’m sure some of those discussions and conversations have already happened, so I think they’ll be working down the line in terms of when we can get that resolved. But again, our remit, for me and Martin, was very clear when we came in: try and put a product on the pitch that can re-galvanise everybody, that can reconnect the supporters with the players and the club, and give us every opportunity to go and still complete the objectives in very, very difficult circumstances when everything was probably against us.The game is fine margins, and I think there’s been real fine margins in whether we could have achieved that or not. But on the whole I’ve seen moments in this last four or five weeks where I can be extremely proud of what we can be proud of as a football club, and how we’ve come together, and how we’ve had some magical moments out on the pitch, albeit you might be coming away from the game disappointed. But there’s been some real moments of excitement and, I suppose, if I don’t get another opportunity to say this, I’ve loved every second of it, and I feel so proud and honoured and privileged to walk out there leading your football club. It is pretty special. I’ve loved every second of it, and I’m just gutted that it didn’t end the way I really believed it would do, because I just fancied us. I really, really did — so did Martin. And you know what? We’re hurting as much as everybody else.But the honour and pride you have is quite remarkable. So I do want to thank, obviously, the club and the fans and you guys as well — I just want to thank everybody, because it’s been remarkable. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comHuddersfield Town gave their fans nothing much to cheer about in their final home game of the season as they fell to a 4-1 defat to Mansfield Town.That led club owner Kevin Nagle to offer a warning to his players ahead of the final game against Wimbledon and the beginning of the summer transfer window — and it was hard to blame him.The We Are Terriers p…

Martin DruryKatherine Hannah (BBC Radio Leeds): If you were going to sum up where it hasn’t worked this season, is it possible to come up with, say, two or three bullet points of, ‘well, that didn’t work, that didn’t work, and that’s why we are where we are?’Yeah, definitely. That’s what’s keeping me up at night every night, looking at every single thing that we could have done better. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, around consistency — change of staff, change of players, big turnovers — very, very, very difficult to get success.We’ve looked at Cardiff, we looked at Lincoln, we’ve looked at the other teams that are there…the stability that they’ve had, the way they’ve aligned recruitment to that, has been very, very good. We know there’s areas of that we can do better.But at the same time, you look at the last three games in particular, and I appreciate, and naturally, people say, well, we’ve not managed those games well enough when we’ve been in winning positions because of late goals that have been conceded. And I’ll own that and accept that, and Jon will do the same. But it’s a much bigger piece than that.If you look over 44 games this season, statistically we’re the worst in the league at conceding goals after 75 minutes, the worst team, [20 goals across] 17 occasions.So if you’re going to look at the last three, I would say it needs to be a bigger piece than in-game management over three games. Fortunately, we’ve been in winning positions in all three of those games, which is good, but over the course of the season that stat is alarming.That was shared this week with the players. I loved how they responded to it. I think some were shocked by it, and there are clear reasons as to why that is. I won’t go into too much, but it’s very, very clear, two or three things wrapped around that, why goals are conceded after 75 minutes. And that’s something that has been addressed and will need to be addressed more in the summer to ensure that next season that is not the case.KH: And some quite difficult conversations are going to start happening pretty soon, if they haven’t already, in terms of where you go from here. Let’s start with the playing squad for starters. At what point do you and Jon and Liam — I don’t know what his input is at the moment — start to look at, right, who’s in the building, who do we want to keep in this building, and who maybe needs to be looking elsewhere?Yeah, that started. That started before the last sort of five, six games. And that’s a process that takes place across your full season. You’re always looking to improve, whether that’s in January or the end of the season.What I would say, as I said before, is I feel we’ve got a very, very good core group of players. And I think if you look in the last five games in particular, I’ve been hugely impressed, but not surprised, by the level of performance of individuals that potentially six or seven weeks ago people were looking at and saying, ‘well, maybe he needs to go, maybe he needs to go, he’s not lived up to this expectation’.I think you’ve seen individual development across those players over the last few games. I think that’s galvanised them as a group, and they look more like a team, and that’s why they’ve been so competitive and played, in my opinion, really well in some of the games, and been the better team in, I’d say, four of the five games that we’ve had.But of course Huddersfield Town can’t be where they are and accept that this group of staff, this group of players, is doing enough. It’s not. That needs to be addressed, and I’m sure it will be.There was a massive overhaul of players last summer, so a huge number of new faces around. Is it likely to be the same this summer? Or, from what you’ve said there, if you feel you’ve got a good core, will it be more a question of tweaking it rather than a massive clear-out and start all over again?Well, if you go back 12 months, that was the process that took place: massive turnover of players, new manager, new staff, all new staff.So to do that again, I think it’d be a hell of a risk for the club. But also to stick with everybody that’s here would also be a hell of a risk.So strategic planning, work out exactly who helps this football club move forwards, who doesn’t, who’s on board, who wants to go on that journey. Tough decisions will have to be made, of course.But I do think heavy turnover year after year — I go back to it again — the clubs that have been successful this season in this league and the league above and the Premier League, consistency, quality and consistency, gives you a hell of a chance to succeed. That’s what this club needs, in my opinion.KH: I appreciate this might not be an easy one to answer at the moment, but have difficult conversations started to take place about what happens with Liam and whether he comes back, and what the situation is with yourself and Jon? What more can you tell us about what the picture for the coaching staff looks like at Huddersfield Town going forwards into a summer which will arrive before we know it?Yeah, I wish I could probably tell you more, but no.Our remit is to take the last two games of the season.As I said before, I’ve been in touch with Liam on a regular basis in terms of him and his health and how he is. The support we’ve had from above at the club has been outstanding.We’ve not felt pressure, but we have felt expectation, which is what you want, but also real support from above.We’ll take the last two games of the season. We’ll continue to work in the exact same vein that we have done over the last four or five weeks, and hopefully we’ll continue tomorrow at home, in front of our fans, where we’ve been strong, where the fans have been strong, where the players have been very, very strong.Hopefully we finish strong tomorrow, and then we move into the last game of the season.And as I said before, and I think Sean’s alluded to it, we won’t change. Nothing changes. We continue to work, whether it looks like you’re getting in the play-offs or not. We continue to work as hard as we possibly can. The players have done that themselves, which has been brilliant, and that’ll be the case over the next 10 days.Steven Chicken (We Are Terriers): You’ve talked about the recruitment and stuff that needs to change, and I appreciate that’s Chris Markham’s area — but have you been involved in discussions with Chris about what direction you think that needs to take?We’ve had good conversations with Chris. Chris is someone that is open to listening to people’s opinions. So we’ve had good conversations this week around that and in previous weeks before then, so those are ongoing.But ultimately, decisions should be made by Chris and the owner in terms of what those decisions look like.SC: Do you feel that this season is kind of a necessary learning experience for these players, getting to know each other and getting to know what they need to do to win games as a team? You look at the continuity that the clubs have had above you, particularly Lincoln, and you can see maybe player by player they don’t have the most talented squad in the division necessarily, but you can’t argue with their league position. They know their jobs and they do them really, really well.I definitely agree with that. Player for player, on talent and ability, I would say we’ve got one of the best squads in the league, and that doesn’t win football matches. That will give you a chance to win football matches and to compete, but to win football matches there’s much more than talent.There’s leadership, there’s selflessness, and there’s game intelligence, game understanding, winning mentality, and people who will not just do it, but actually love to do the ugly side of football, the dirty side of football, the dark arts of football.Player for player, we’ve got a brilliant squad, brilliant squad. But I do feel that, as I touched on before, some of the stats that I’ve just given there give you an indication of what’s missing.I think if you add that on top of the real quality that we’ve got and a real good core of good men — we’ve got a core of good men, these are good men, honest men — but we’re missing two or three things within that to make that stronger and to complement what we’ve already got.Big changes I don’t feel are necessary, but certainly specific changes will be key in the summer.SC: Is it all about getting the players who can knit it together and keep their heads and drag people along with them a little bit? When you talk about game management and things, it seems like that must be top of the list.Look, from a coach’s perspective, you’d love 11 captains on the pitch every week. It’d be an easy job. That’d be lovely, and you can sit in the dugout and be calm. That’s not the case. So you need as many as possible.And again, you need that consistency, so they’ve got a platform to feel like they can lead. Because I do think we have got some leaders in the group that maybe have not felt they’ve had the opportunity to lead or not felt they’ve had the platform to do that this season, and with so much change comes uncertainty. So again, people take a step back whenever they should be taking a step forward.So they need that platform. They need that consistency and continuity across staff as well as players, and I think that will give them the leverage then to come forward and be the leaders that I know there are. There are some more leaders in there that we’ve probably not seen the best of this season.But again, that’s something that is more of an off-season, pre-season piece. Very difficult when you’ve got seven games left to start going into real big detail around those types of things, very, very difficult, but very easy when you’ve got time.SC: It sounds like you’re not making excuses for it, though. It sounds like you’re aware that, as you say, Huddersfield, with the ambitions and the budget and the squad that you’ve got, should have done better this season. Is that fair to say?More than fair to say. More than fair to say. Excuses will land us in the exact same position in 12 months. Anyone that’s got an excuse needs to leave the club.There needs to be accountability. We need to take responsibility for it — players, staff, everybody in the club. As a club, we’ve failed. The club’s failed this season to be where we are at this stage of the season. We’ve failed.But within that failure has been a hell of a lot of learning, and you’re a step closer to success when you go through that. That’s how I feel at the minute, this moment in time. I think we’re a step closer to where we need to be, because there’s a lot more clarity on what needs to be done. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comYou don’t need us to tell you what happened at Bolton Wanderers as Huddersfield Town blew a two-goal lead against ten men, with yet another injury time goal costing them the three points…but hey, we’re going to give it a go anyway.The midweek games could well confirm that Town are out of chances to sneak into the play-offs after a very costly eight days…

The following are selected highlights of Martin Drury’s pre-match press conference ahead of facing Bolton. You can hear the full thing, as well as Jak Alwnick’s thoughts, on our podcast feed or by hitting the play button above. You can also check out our weekly digest for full team news.Jamie Raynor (BBC Radio Leeds): Martin, good to see you again. Now the dust has somewhat settled on Tuesday night, how do you reflect on what was such a strong performance from the team, but ultimately a disappointing result in the end?Yeah, exactly as you said, a really, really strong performance from the group. I arrived home late Tuesday night, got the laptop out, watched the game back. I was very, very pleased with many aspects within the game, in particular the amount of chances that we created, the threat that we posed to Cardiff.As I said after the game, I think it’s 15 shot, is it, from within their box? Which is quite a staggering statistic — but again, somewhat disappointing to only take one goal from that.I thought out of possession the players were excellent. The first thing I look for when we’re watching is whether they’re invested in what they’re doing psychologically. I thought they were immense from start to finish, which you have to be against Cardiff because they’re so good attacking down the sides, really, really good.So I thought the work the players put in, I thought they looked together, I thought they looked connected, I thought their work ethic and their levels of output physically were outstanding. And as I say, and as you said, it’s somewhat frustrating that we don’t get over the line and take three points.JR: Does Tuesday not only encourage you, but maybe slightly frustrate you, in the sense that they can put out that level of performance and reach, to an extent, that potential that you see in the group, but then have not done that maybe as consistently over a period of time across the season as a whole?There’s frustration within it, but at the same time it’s quite comforting, because I feel, as I said after the game, to have complete clarity on exactly where we are, what are the strengths of the group, what good things have we got. I think those things have been really, really clear to see of late.But I also like the fact that it’s crystal clear what we need to get better at, whether that’s on us, whether that’s on the players, or collectively together. There’s things we need to improve in, and I don’t think they’re big things. I really don’t.And maybe across the season people have looked in and gone, ‘there needs to be some big, big changes here, we need to do this, we need to do that’…I don’t see that. We have to be strategic in what changes we make, whether that’s from us as staff or players. But I think the potential of the group, as you said there, is a lot higher than potentially what people were thinking.I believe in the group, and I think with some very, very small tweaks we can get big gains. And as you’ve said, I think the potential for the future is massive.JR: How much are you involved in long-term discussions of this football club, as well as the fact that you’ve got a short-term goal to still try and reach?Of course, it’s within your thinking, naturally thinking about it. But the priority for us as a group of staff right now is the here and now.The powers that be, I’m sure, will have eyes on what the future looks like. Of course, there’s conversations, but they’re not big conversations at this moment in time because we’ve got a job to do and we’ve got to help these players, and that’s been our focus, to help these players in the last stage of the season.So we’ll continue to do that, and I’m sure that further down the line those decisions and certain things that will be done will be made by people that you can definitely trust from above.So for now, we just focus on what we can do. We work with the players the best we can. The players, as I said, have been first class. I’m enjoying the relationship between us and the players, and we’ll continue to do that over these next three games.JR: We’ve obviously now learned that Jake Edwards has left his role as the club’s chief executive in the last 24 hours by mutual agreement. Does that at all have any impact on your current situation, the conversations that you’re having day to day?None whatsoever, no. None whatsoever. I wish Jake all the best. Jake was a lovely guy. Everything that I had to do with him when he was here was really good.The decision has been made between Jake and the club, and as I say, I look ahead for him and I wish him all the best for the future. But for me, solely right now, I’ve got quite a lot on, Jamie, so I’ll focus on the players.JR: Bojan [Radulovic] obviously came off part way through the first half on Tuesday. Is his situation at all any clearer?Well, he’s one of the ones that came in this morning saying, “I’m all good to go on Saturday,” with his arm hanging off.So that’ll be a late call with Bojan. He got a scan yesterday on it, and it’s not as bad as we first feared, which is really positive news because everyone knows how good he is and how big he is for us.’m not sure Saturday is realistic at this moment in time, but we’ll do everything we possibly can to try and get him on the pitch for Saturday. So yeah, that one’s definitely in the balance.JR: If Saturday isn’t achievable for him, in terms of replacement, is it game by game in terms of how you approach the opposition from a forward-line standpoint, like for like with Bojan and his physical presence, or more diminutive in the form of Alfie May?I think you have to respect who you’re playing against first and foremost, and also not just respect their threats but also be excited about the areas you think you can hurt them, and then look at which players you think can do that.So if you look at the Wycombe game on Saturday, if Alfie May had scored, I think everyone would have said he was outstanding in the game. If you look at his movement, if you look at his link-up play, if you look at the work he did without the ball, he got an assist. He was just missing a goal. And goals can often change the opinions of how people see that people have performed. I thought Alfie was excellent.Tuesday night was a completely different game from that role and that position. We needed something a little bit different. We needed somebody who could help us defend on the sides, which is not natural for Alfie. He does it, but it’s not natural to him. And we needed someone that would travel with the ball on transitions to get us up the pitch and offer that threat, and then also press with a real intensity, which Alfie did really well against Wycombe.But if you look at [David] Kasumu’s performance the other night, he was brilliant. He was brilliant for what was needed for that game.So it’s not us picking players based on who do we like this week and who do we like [the next] week. It’s based on all aspects of the game.Who’s going to help us hurt the opponent? Who’s going to help us defend when we haven’t got the ball?When we haven’t got Bojan, that changed the game plan, how we felt we could attack the other day. We felt goal kicks for us would be a really, really big part of how we could attack. You saw that in the first half, the way Bojan held the ball up, the way we were able to get movements underneath him, link in play off him.Alfie May is a completely different player, completely different profile, so I wouldn’t ask Alfie to do that job. George [Sebine] is a different profile. George is more similar to Bojan. We had no reservations to put George on the pitch.I thought he did it well at times, and we have to help him, as we’ve done today on the grass, with some work around how we can refine some of those techniques that he has alongside his physical capabilities.So that’ll be no different. We look at Bolton, we look at where we can hurt Bolton, but then we also look at how do we stop Bolton and pay the respect that they’re due, and then we’ll pick a team based on what we think will win the game of football. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comIt was another good performance, another bitter ending for Huddersfield Town in their 1-1 draw with Cardiff City.We were once again left impressed by Martin Drury and Jon Stead for what they delivered on and off the pitch, but yet another late goal meant the Terriers failed to take full advantage of Stevenage’s slip-up.Plus, we give our reaction to the …

The following are selected highlights of Jon Stead’s pre-match press conference ahead of facing Cardiff. You can hear the full thing, as well as Cameron Humphreys’ thoughts, on our podcast live feed or by hitting the play button above.Jon SteadSteven Chicken (We Are Terriers): I’ll start with team news if I can please…how’s Lee Nicholls doing after Saturday?He’s OK, he’s improving by the day. Obviously, with something like that, you need to take precautions, so he’s been assessed daily and that’s how we’ll work it at the minute.We’ll probably have a better picture after Tuesday to see how long term that is. It just gets assessed and runs through a staged protocol, so when it gets to a point where there’s an assessment made on how long that time frame will look like, we can give you that, but for now, it’s day to day, but he’s improving and he’s in good health.Is he ruled out tomorrow regardless?Yeah, he’ll struggle for tomorrow. There’s no risk that we can take in that regard, so it will rule him out for tomorrow, but what he’ll look like after that, we’ll have to wait and see.So is he in the concussion protocol?Yes.OK. So Jak Alnwick obviously will step in and get a chance against his former club, of course. How did you regard Jak’s performance on Saturday?Brave. He came for things, he was dominant when he needed to be.Jak’s a good goalkeeper, and I’m sure he’ll be ready to go. He’s been waiting for an opportunity, and a massive game tomorrow, isn’t it? I have no worries about him whatsoever. He’s a top guy, he’s been around the league now, he’s got good experience, and he’s got insights on Cardiff as well, which might help us! But yeah, he’s ready to go and he gets an opportunity.And how’s Lynden Gooch doing after he went off?Goochy’s still being assessed. He’s got a really, really tight calf, so that’ll need a scan and we’ll have a look at that to see what that looks like. Not ruling him out yet for tomorrow, but we’ll have to get the assessment off the back of the scan today.And I think the other three you’ve got out — George Sebine, Jack Whatmough and Ryan Hardie — any more on any of them? George should be fine … We’ll have to be careful with him, because he’s still got stitches, and I think there’s stitches underneath and then stitches on top, so they’ll still be in there — so he’ll have a nice big bandage on if he gets on the pitch tomorrow.Jack is close, so he’s closer to training now. Whether tomorrow comes a little bit too quick for him, [I don’t know], but he won’t be far after that if he doesn’t make it.And then Ryan, again, I think he’s in for another assessment this week to see when he can start really pushing again. We’re hopeful of him getting back sooner rather than later.And we know Josh Feeney and Cam Ashia are very unlikely to feature this season…any other team news you can give us?No.With the emotion of it on Saturday, you said you’d have to go away and pick the bones out of it — what did you find when you went and did that?Yeah, obviously not much sleep on Saturday night, I’m sure everybody else was the same!But we were back in as a staff on Sunday morning and we went through it stringently. We looked at a lot of things that we did really well, really, really well, which were top in terms of the stuff we’ve been working on, and seeing that come out in the game was really, really pleasing.On the flip side of that, there’s obviously areas that we need to massively improve, some of those individually, some of those collectively in units.So we assessed where we needed to make changes there and make sure that we’re giving the lads the right information, giving them the opportunity to go and succeed and maybe correct some of those individual errors. They fall around different aspects of the game, not just the set-piece aspect, which is obviously right there in your face, isn’t it? But there’s a lot of other things as well that we need to get better at.So the processes, the way we work, will stay the same, and we’ll keep picking at that. Even if people think sometimes it’s a good performance and everything’s fine, you move on — that’s not the case, not the way we look into it. There’s always things that we need to get better at. So we did a lot of that on Sunday morning. A lot of stuff then has gone on today in terms of individuals, units and team meetings. And then yesterday, again, your focus has to then straight away switch to Cardiff. So yesterday again was a lot of stuff in the afternoon, making sure we’ve got all that prepped and ready to deliver to the players this morning.So again, processes carry on no matter how wild the game is, whether it’s good, bad or indifferent. We have to keep to the same disciplines and make sure we’re doing everything that we can do to make the players as comfortable as they can be on the pitch. So those things happen, and then obviously the focus of that on Tuesday.On some of the positives in a moment, but obviously that last 15 minutes — and look, we know the set-piece record has been poor in the last few months — is there a sense, though, of, for instance, the second phase on the final goal, is it just boot it upfield when they’ve got all 11 men in your half and you have to make them chase it for 30 seconds? Is it that kind of game management to avoid those set pieces in the first place?Yes, it’s a very, very simple game, complicated by coaches sometimes, but actually, I think there’s a simplicity to that: look, it’s the last second of the game, can we play it forward?There’s things then when there’s the look of it as well. The ball goes to the side and gets delivered back into the exact same place that [Radinio Balker] would have been in.There’s things that happened before, in terms of the first goal — somebody is just slightly out of position and makes a decision to move forward instead of back. There’s loads of different things that just equate to actually the simplicity of football.But I think when you add in the magnitude of the game, the level of stress that these players are under, the fatigue level that you’re at at that point, it obviously clouds your judgement…but I’m certainly not making excuses for any of us, and I mean that collectively, because there’s things that we need to do better as a staff as well.So that allows us as a collective group to nail all these things and make sure we’ve given them the right information, so when it’s in that high-tempo environment, they can make clear decisions. So we’re all looking at that collectively to make that better. But yeah, like you say, it’s a simple thing. That ball travels into the opposition half, they don’t retrieve it, and the whistle’s probably blown. I’m certainly not going to argue about refereeing decisions because that’s not what we’re about. We need to really focus on things that we can control and the things that we’re trying to implement.And like you said, we’re seeing that. I’ll tell you what, it was an entertaining game, giving it a right go. We’ve been written off every two minutes in the last four or five weeks. We still keep putting in another performance and just creeping it back again, and we’ll need to do that again tomorrow night.I’m sure you’ve been banging your head against the wall with this set-piece record for weeks now. What is it? Pure concentration? Is it people knowing their jobs? What do you put it down to as a coaching staff?I think we could have these conversations with any coaches, any clubs across the league, from top to bottom.There’s an element of individual stuff. There’s an element of personnel, and the capability to go and deal with certain situations. We look at the setups and whether the setup’s right or wrong. We’ve changed and adjusted those. We’ve adjusted how we deliver it on the grass, how we deliver it in meetings. I know that’s, in a lot of respects, not a good answer because the outcomes have been the same, but we’re trying to figure out which way we can get that better, and we’re working extremely hard to do that, as are the players as well, taking accountability for that as well.I know that from speaking to you after the game, and from speaking to Martin as well, your attitude is you’re not giving up on this season. It’s still 'anything can happen, keep going…’Yeah, we’ve been written off every 10 minutes. Again, the players have shown that they’re not giving up. The conversations that we had this morning, the way they trained this morning, nothing’s done and dusted.The fans have been fantastic. What an atmosphere it was. I know it ended in disappointment, but that spell before that was just incredible to be a part of. It really, really was. I think everybody felt that in the stadium.We need that again tomorrow against a very, very good side, by the way, but one that we’re more than capable of matching and beating.So we’re still full of confidence, and the players showed that in the way they trained this morning, and when we’re asking them questions around things, and the way that they’re answering it, they’re telling us they want to go again.So I’m excited again for tomorrow. Honestly, like I said, we get written off every two minutes and I’m sick of it, to be fair. Until it’s done, it’s not done, so until then, let’s get right behind it.Have you been in situations like this, either in your coaching career or your playing career, where you do get written off? We’ve seen it at Huddersfield a few times, albeit more in relegation battles than promotion pushes, but have you been in that situation where it feels like everything’s against you and you managed to pull it off?Yeah, we’ve had a few. I think again, probably relegation side of it more than others, where you just get over the other side. And I remember getting Harrogate, as a player, through Covid and stuff, where nobody expects Harrogate to get up into the Football League. We ended up being in the final playoffs at Wembley and then, for a small club, for the first time in their history to get into the Football League…it was unheard of. I think as an individual, you get written off a lot, especially as a player, and I think a lot of our lads have been written off a lot this season, and a lot of them have come back. A lot of them have struggled through that. A lot of them have found ways to show what they’re really capable of.Again, our job as a staff is to give them the platform to show what they are capable of. Because I think everybody at the start of the season looked to this group and just thought, you know, that is a group that can go and do something this season.We still have that same belief, that same belief in the players, in their attitudes and the commitment and the way that they approach training conversations and the way that they behave around us.They’re a joy to work with, so I just want them to get the rewards. I just want the players to get the rewards for all this hard work, and they will be fired up, and we will have them fired up and ready to go again tomorrow. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comWe weren’t sure if we were going to do this week’s We Are Terriers podcast after Wycombe or after Cardiff. Well, we’ve decided to do a little of both with a half-length podcast after each game.First up, then, it’s that 3-3 draw with Wycombe Wanderers — a game where Town should have been out of sight long before three goals went in from the 90th minute o…

The following are selected highlights of Martin Drury’s pre-match press conference ahead of facing Wycombe. You can hear the full thing, as well as Bojan Radulovic’s thoughts, on our podcast live feed or by hitting the play button above.Louis Reynolds (BBC Radio Leeds): How’s George Sebine getting on? I appreciate there are probably some protocols to follow, but how is he?No, he’s been good in himself. He’s recovered quite quickly from it. Obviously, as a young lad, we want to protect him a little bit and look after him, which we’ve done over the last few days. The medical team have been really, really good.But no, George is in a good spot. We’ll make a late call on George and see where he’s at in terms of the game. Hopefully he’s OK, and if not then we’ll look towards Tuesday.LR: And from what you’ve seen with him in the first team, how do you reckon he’s got on?I think for a young boy, 19 years old, to have done what he’s done in such a short space of time — let’s not forget, not just at Huddersfield Town, but coming from non-league to professional football — I think the academy has done a fantastic job with him. Jon Worthington and everybody involved with the academy have done a brilliant job.And when he’s come in with the first team, I’ve been really, really impressed, both with him as a human being and him as a footballer. We can see the qualities that he has, both physically and technically, and then his hunger and desire for the game, his willingness to learn and listen, every day has been top class. So yeah, he’s been a brilliant addition.LR: How’s Ryan Hardie getting on?Yeah, Ryan’s obviously in his rehab. It’s probably not settled as quickly as we would have liked, and probably as quickly as Ryan would have liked. He’s champing at the bit to get amongst it again.Of course, he’s a big miss for us. He’s been brilliant around the place as well.So we’re still on with that one. It’ll probably take a little bit longer, though.LR: And Joe Low as well?Again, Joe’s been brilliant in terms of his rehab, worked really, really hard, and Joe’s really close — really close. We’d like to have Joe back involved, whether that be this weekend or Tuesday. So yeah, credit to him, and again the medical team, for the condition he’s coming back in.We had a session with him the day after the Leyton Orient game. Joe’s brilliant, both from a footballing perspective and in terms of his attitude towards everything. So yeah, he’s really, really close.LR: Any fresh concerns after Easter weekend?No, no. Alfie May is back amongst it. He had a problem with his foot, which has settled down. He’s trained this week and was excellent in training today, so Alfie will come back into the mix for the weekend.LR: How do you reflect on those two games? Let’s start with Reading — starting at the back, a late point. How do you reflect on it?Yeah, Reading was obviously the first game that we’d taken in Liam’s absence. We’d had a little bit of time to prep for that, so we felt going into the game that we were quite clear. We knew Reading were a good team, as we saw on the day and from the run that they’re on.But I thought the way the players went about it that day, they were excellent, particularly first half. Second half didn’t look how I wanted it to look, we know that, but there were things we were able to understand from the game about exactly why it didn’t look how we wanted it to look, so that led us into the game on the Monday.And two games in such a short space of time, again, credit to the players for how they turned themselves around in that amount of time. Obviously Monday took care of itself, and there’s a lot to say about that day.LR: Talk us through that moment at the end at Leyton Orient from your point of view.Yeah, look, it was a tight game. I don’t think we ever got the game on our terms in terms of how we wanted to play. We were hopeful going into it that we could make it look like the first half against Reading, but it’s different opposition, a different stadium, and obviously away from home, so there are some challenges within that for us.Second half I felt we were much better than in the first half. I don’t think it was a lack of trying in the first half — the players worked incredibly hard in both halves. The data tells you that the difference in the second half was that we were a lot more connected, the distances between our players in every moment of the game, whether that was second balls landing for us or whether it was connecting passes in possession.As the game went on, you’re pushing, you’re trying to get the goal, the game was tight. But fortunately for us, we’ve got such quality on the bench to come off it, including players that missed out. That’s where we’re at at this moment in time. We know we’ve got good players, and we know that in moments.We said it before the game. I said it to the players in the hotel before we left: 11 players won’t win that game on Monday. We needed 20 players to win the game, and that’s what it took.So from [Josh] Feeney going down in the warm-up and being injured, to changes on the bench, I thought from start to finish, in terms of togetherness and the collective spirit of everybody, and then obviously, as you all saw, Ryan Ledson comes on the pitch and does what a good leader and a good captain does. Big, big moment, big player, in a really big game for us.So relief is one word, for sure, but also pleased for the whole group, because I feel that over the two games, four points is what we deserved, if not more.LR: When you mention parts of games not looking how you want them to look, and a different level of opposition going into Monday, what were those things you didn’t like the look of? And how do you and Jon go about fixing them in a short space of time?Well, if I’m going to be really open, if you look across the season, the group that was assembled in the summer were playing a certain style of football under Lee [Grant] and doing it really, really well initially — the way they were playing, dominating the ball, trying to move the ball up the pitch in quite a slow process but in a really controlled way.That changed as the season went on, but you still had the same group of players. So then you’re trying to do something that’s not exactly the same as that, but a little bit more progressive. Depending on what players you have, that’s going to dictate the way you play football, right? So it’s not as simple as, ‘we want to play this way, so let’s go and do it’.We have to look at the capability of the group and what suits that capability. And that was the first thing that I said to them when we first spoke in the meeting after Liam was off. We said we wanted to maintain all the brilliant things that Liam had put in place. We wanted to reinforce those things, and also look at one or two different ways on top of that.Working with Liam, and knowing Liam’s beliefs and values, we want to ensure that we bring out the best of the capabilities of the players that we have. I felt the first half against Reading was what that looked like. We didn’t play short and slow, we didn’t play long and direct. I felt we played in a way where we tried to dominate the ball, dominate territory, and I felt that was a good example of what we wanted to look like.But I also felt at Leyton Orient, when the game didn’t look like that, our players were able to mix it up and play a different style of football, and compete and fight and show spirit. I thought we did that more and more as the game went on, and hence why you get that little bit of fortune, of course quality as well, at the end of the game to get that goal.LR: What does that say about the character of the group, that OK, it might not be perfect all the time, but you’ve still got those four points?I think across the season the players, rightly or wrongly, have come under criticism. I think you can question every now and again whether the quality was there in certain moments, whether we executed certain things. I think those questions are fair, really fair, and supporters’ expectations of what they want to see are spot on.But if you watch the game the other day, with maybe five minutes to play, we lose the ball in Leyton Orient’s half and I saw 11 players sprinting the full length of the pitch to get back. Sean Roughan gets across the box and blocks a shot that potentially could have meant we lost the game. I think that tells you something about the spirit of where they’re all at, whether they’re all in in this moment in time.And if you watch the celebrations of both the players and the supporters when that goal went in, I think that’s a really good example of where everyone’s at mentally and psychologically. These players are all in. I see them every day in training and I can’t compliment them enough for the way they’re working.We’re not going to get everything right they’re not going to get everything right — they’re human beings. But if we don’t achieve what we want to achieve, it won’t be for a lack of training, I assure you of that.LR: Let’s say if the chips are down tomorrow and you can feel that anxiety creeping in — if you could speak to the supporters, what would you say?I think first and foremost they’ve got every right to voice their opinion. The fans are unbelievable. The numbers they have, both home and away, are incredible for where we currently are as a club, and I think they are well within their rights to voice their opinions in certain moments.What I would say is that in 15 years of coaching, I’m yet to come across any player that responds in a positive way to criticism, because they’re just human beings. It’s difficult.So I would say: we need you. The players need you. When they hear that roar and you’re right behind us, it lights the players up. I see it in them, and they speak about it. They love it when the fans are behind them. When they’re not behind them, and they voice it, I’ll be honest — it hits you like a tonne of bricks. That’s the reality of it.So I have respect for both the fans and the players. And I think what you’ve seen in the last couple of games, the fans have been outstanding. I think the players have felt that. The performances over these two games, albeit not perfect, have been full of energy, full of spirit, full of togetherness, and there’s been a real connection between the two.Hopefully that continues. In these last five games, that’s going to be paramount in whether we get success or not.Steven Chicken (We Are Terriers): Just going back to team news, if I can please — how’s Josh Feeney doing after he had to withdraw on Monday?Yeah, Josh was unfortunate news. He’s got an issue that he’ll go back to Aston Villa to get treatment on, and he’ll probably struggle to play again for at least another five or six weeks, I’m led to believe.So yeah, disappointing for Josh and disappointing for us, because he’s been brilliant. Whether he starts games or whenever he’s been called upon, he’s been a top, top lad. Loved working with him. So yeah, that’s disappointing news for everybody.SC: How’s Jack Whatmough doing? I believe he had a bit of a niggle over the weekend…Yeah, Jack had a little bit of a niggle, and it’s not as bad as we first suspected it might be. I’ll tell you one thing about Jack — he’s champing at the bit, even to come back before schedule.This is me being really open: Jack came and said ‘just play me. Get me involved. Just get me involved’, even though he’s not quite ready. He’ll be back really soon.Again, I think that’s testament to him and his character and what he wants to give the club. It shows that all the players are all in. So we’ll hopefully see Jack back soon. We’ll look after him over this weekend, make sure he gets the work that’s needed, and we’ll have a look at him on Monday.SC: And Cameron Ashia? Jon [Stead] mentioned he’s seen a specialist. What’s the situation with him?Yeah, unfortunately with Cameron it wasn’t good news either. I think it’ll be difficult for Cameron to be back on the pitch this season … It’s a groin issue.I had a good conversation with Cameron the other day. Such a great character. He’s disappointed, of course. We lose someone who gives you that one-v-one threat in wide areas, those exciting moments.So again, it’s a big loss for us. But we’ll look after Cameron and we’ll see where we are moving forward with him. SC: Just going back to something touched on earlier with the crowd being behind the side: I appreciate circumstances have been difficult and it’s been a tough season in many ways, but you could see the message of support that the Cowshed had for Liam Manning last Friday, for instance, and the late goals, as you’ve mentioned, the celebrations for them — in a funny way, those are the kinds of things that can really galvanise a set of supporters and the team, isn’t it?Yeah, I’d like to think so. We’ve certainly felt them over the last couple of games in particular. You’ve got to remember, I’ve been coming here many, many years.I had a really, really close relationship with Carlos Corberan, so I was coming when Carlos was the head coach here.The supporters and the fans were something that I took away from those moments when I came to watch games, alongside the football.Exactly the same prior to that, when David Wagner was here. I used to come down and watch a number of games then as well, with different cultures, just looking and seeing what was going on. A big takeaway for me every time I came here was how big the fans and supporters are.As I said before, if we give them something to cheer about, they’re unbelievable. And again, we’ve felt that in moments over the last couple of games. We’ve felt it in games prior to that, but probably not consistently enough. It’s worked both ways, I think, both from our performances and from the support. So hopefully, moving into these last stages of the season, there is a connection.Jon’s said it quite a lot when he’s done the press conferences, and I think the fans have been right behind us.For me, the moment the goal went in on Friday, and then the goal went in on Monday — the two late goals, as you say — that can generate a real connection between us, and hopefully that’ll continue for the last five games. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comFour points from the Easter weekend has kept Huddersfield Town in the cluster of teams chasing sixth place, despite living dangerously for much of their games against Reading and Leyton Orient. The question now is whether they can keep it going and whether it will be enough to sneak into the play-offs even if they do.Bojan Radulovic’s return to action u…

The following is an interview in full with sporting director Chris Markham regarding Liam Manning’s situation, followed by highlights of Jon Stead’s pre-match press conference ahead of Reading. You can hear the full thing, as well as skipper Ryan Ledson’s thoughts, on our podcast live feed or by hitting the play button above.We have also been asked to pass on from the club that Huddersfield Town will not be offering additional previews on YouTube in order to reduce the media workload on the coaching staff and players amid a busy end of the season.Chris MarkhamKatherine Hannah (BBC Radio Leeds): It’s a very difficult time for the football club in a lot of respects, so if you wouldn’t mind, first of all, just filling us in a little more on everything that’s happened with Liam Manning—how he is and how that unfolded, if you don’t mind.Yeah, look, as you said, it’s been a very difficult situation for everyone involved at the club. But most importantly, and first and foremost, Liam Manning as a person is at the forefront of our decisions, and treating him in the right way was, from the outset of the conversations that we had, the priority.Obviously, that was after the Plymouth game [that we spoke]. We normally agree to speak the day after the game, let the emotions die down, and then have a catch-up. We did that, and we had a very honest and, to be honest, tough and heart-wrenching conversation. It very much became clear that Liam Manning, the person, needed some support, and we were very, very quick in offering that support.It’s a very difficult situation to try and address and comprehend, but that was the upshot of it — Liam Manning, the person, comes first and foremost here.KH: Well, football matters an awful lot to an awful lot of people, but it kind of puts it all in perspective a bit, doesn’t it? Your heart just goes out to him and his family with everything they’ve had to deal with and continue to go through.Absolutely. Liam is the sort of person who doesn’t want to let anyone down, and a big part of our conversation was to give him the understanding that we don’t believe that’s what he’s done at all. We will continue to support him in the upcoming weeks, whatever that takes. He knows he’s got that support from us, and we’re confident he’s getting the right support—he’s exactly where he needs to be at the moment.We’re also looking forward. As you say, it puts it into perspective, but we are a professional football club and, unfortunately, the game never stops. Very quickly, we were aware that we’ve still got a big seven to ten games to come, and we had to turn our attention to that as well, which is obviously the dichotomy of football and why it’s so fast-paced.Yeah, it’s a very difficult situation to navigate through. In terms of these remaining seven games, Martin Drury and Jon Stead are going to take the helm — why did you feel that was the best course of action?Yeah, look, there are obviously lots of different ways you could have gone in this situation. We felt quite quickly that stability is probably what we needed at this moment in time — consistency of voices, with so few games left.The mentality around the training ground this week has been first class. I’ve been really, really impressed. It’s been a rallying round, bringing everybody together, letting everybody pitch in and give everything we’ve got to these last seven —hopefully ten — games of the season.What led to that feeling was that we believe we’ve got some good coaches who work in the way that we want to work as a football club going forward. In the recruitment process when we interviewed Liam, we also made sure we did the appropriate interview processes for Martin and Jon, so we know what sort of coaches they are. We’re very confident and comfortable with having them here, and we’re really grateful to have them.KH: And I guess, particularly in light of how this has unfolded, that sense of stability and continuity perhaps makes more sense than bringing in somebody external, as we’ve seen some other clubs do, albeit in very different circumstances, for the remainder of the season.Yeah, exactly. To make sure we get the best out of these seven to ten games, we looked at what we thought was right here. With already having had a change in coaching, we wanted to make sure that any time we have now is maximising what we’ve currently got. We felt bringing somebody in from outside would only delay that process.KH: As difficult as it is, can you look beyond the end of the season, or do you have to wait and see how everything unfolds before having those conversations in the summer about how the club moves forward, whether that involves Liam Manning or not?At the moment, everything is about the next seven games. It’s very early on in this process — it’s just over a week since the announcement. We’re confident that Liam Manning is in the right place with the right support, and that’s our focus.We want to give everything to these last seven to ten games, and we’ll continue to monitor everything, as we do across the club, on a weekly basis. But right now, everything is geared towards a big Easter weekend. We’ve got a lot of games in the next couple of weeks — five really exciting games to tackle head-on.Everything is still to play for. That’s the message to the players and around the Canalside this week: let’s rally together, focus on the here and now, and give it everything.Jon SteadKH: Have you found the last few weeks, since the announcement that Liam was taking compassionate leave?Yeah, well, like you say, it’s a difficult circumstance, and I think Liam has been the main focus of the last ten days. We’ve been in a position to deal with the situation, but Liam’s having to deal with so much at the minute.We’ve been in regular contact with him, which is important. He’s reached out to us, he’s still engaged and seeing what we’re doing from afar.He’s had some unbelievable messages as well. I think when things like this happen, the football world really shows what it can do for good, so he’s had some fantastic messages, loads of support and well wishes. He’s very, very thankful for that, and he asked me to pass that message on because it’s been quite overwhelming. So yeah, the focus has been there, but we’ve got a job to do as well.It’s been, like you say, difficult and uncomfortable circumstances, but we’ve been driving things as hard as we can, because there’s still a massive part of the season left to play — full of optimism, full of belief, and excitement to end it strong. So yes, there’s been a lot of contrasting emotions, but ultimately it’s heads down and we’re getting work done.KH: And can you tell us a little more about the conversations you’ve had with sporting director Chris Markham when it became apparent that it would turn to yourself, Martin and the other coaches to see out the remaining seven games of…Ten.KH: OK, ten, I like that…what remit have you been given?Yeah, so it was a very straight conversation. Obviously, without going into too much detail over Liam’s situation, just the fact that he’s going to be away until the end of the season.It was a real “let’s club together” collective effort for myself, Martin and all the wider staff — even everybody here at the stadium, the grounds, just everybody: how can we come together and, as a collective, finish the season strong?So they were quite brief conversations, and me and Martin will front it and lead it, but it is very much a collective effort, and everybody is getting stuck in.KH: Do you continue the blueprint that was started by Liam Manning, or are you at liberty to tweak things, change things, completely change things if you see fit for the remaining games?Yeah, well, there’s a blueprint, there are principles, and there are different ways that coaches and managers work. I think the biggest thing has been adaptability. We’ve seen straight away there’s been a lot of change this season from start to now, so being adaptable is key.There are many things we’ll keep driving forward, but each game now is pretty much a cup final, so there’ll be very different specifics around personnel, system shapes, and so on. What we want to see now is character — we want to see players with belief, with hunger, all the main characteristics that are Huddersfield Town.So yeah, there are lots of different ways we might go, but it’s absolutely not a case of ‘now we’re in charge, we’re going to change everything’. There are processes already in place, and we’ve all been brought together as a staff because we have a strong belief and an aligned goal to get to the end of the season in the right way.We’ll continue on that path, and we’ll veer away from it at times as we see fit, depending on personnel, availability, the opposition — everything.Steven Chicken (We Are Terriers): I appreciate the circumstances aren’t what you would have liked, but you made your name here. Are you excited at the opportunity to go into that dugout alongside Martin and lead the team?Yeah, look, wearing this badge is what I want to do. That’s been the case since I was sat out there in a tracksuit as a ball boy. The honour for me is wearing the badge, whatever capacity that’s in — I’m not bothered.You could probably ask Brooky the same thing — he’d say the same. He’s been here for years. So yeah, I think part of the reasoning behind me and Martin is that we’re both local lads, both from Huddersfield, and that adds something.We’re taking on this role between now and the end of the season as part of a collective effort. We are an extension of everybody else in this building and in the stands. It’s not about me and Martin — it’s about us as a football club and the collective, and that’s what we need to drive behind.That’s why it’s broader than just myself and Martin.SC: You’re starting off with a big six-pointer on home turf — if things go your way, it could be a really memorable occasion for you, couldn’t it?Yeah, we’re excited. We get Friday out of the way and then see where we’re at. If things don’t go well, then we reboot and go again — and again and again.We’re going to be relentless in what we do. We’ll be resilient, and as brave as we can be without being irresponsible. It’s not a free hit — we want what’s best for the football club, so that has to be at the forefront of our minds.Let’s get this place rocking tomorrow, get a good result, and kick on to the next one. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comIt’s Q&A time in this week’s podcast, and we’ve got an absolute tonne of your questions to get through in a special double-length podcast.After we give our reaction to the Huddersfield Town managerial news, we dig straight into your questions on recruitment past and future, Town’s future ambitions, matters on and off the pitch, squad composition, leader…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comWell, we said on the last episode that the trajectory of Huddersfield Town’s end-of-season run-in was still in the balance…and a miserable trip to Plymouth seemed to confirm the worst.The Terriers were outclassed by an Argyle side that is firmly on the rise, painting a stark contrast to Town’s own slow and seemingly unstoppable decline.So, what went wro…

Below are selected highlights from Thursday morning’s press conference. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed, including Bali Mumba’s thoughts.Steven Chicken (We Are Terriers): I’ll start with team news first of all, please, and in particular, Ryan Hardie. How’s he doing after his knock the other night?Yeah, he’s still a bit sore, feeling it, so we need to have a look this morning and assess how he is before making a decision.SC: It would be a shame if he missed out, wouldn’t it?Yeah, of course. I think you look at the impact he’s had in recent weeks, since he came on in the Barnsley game, and since then, he’s obviously been building up his minutes and his match sharpness, and you see his goal the other night, we’ve seen him do that many times at this level.He gives us a real threat. I think there’s a few other moments where actually he got him down the side quite well, like the cross early on that he flashed across the box. He’s so intelligent with his movement and he’s done really well, and he’s someone that hopefully we can keep available.SC: Are there any other injuries to be aware of, or any players you might be able to welcome back? Nothing in terms of when you look at new injuries or anything, I think it’s probably more just seeing how people are in terms of physically going Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday in what’s been quite demanding games. So we have to assess, see where the lads are at, and then obviously make a decision on that balance of keeping bits of continuity, but also freshness as well, which is hugely important. So it’ll be a good opportunity to see the lads today.SC: When we spoke the other night, reflecting on the Lincoln game, you obviously had mixed emotions because a lot of the performance you liked, but obviously there’s the disappointment at that late equaliser. Now you’ve had a chance to reflect on it, ow do you see that one?Yeah, I think, especially in the first half, there were some good moments. In terms of how we defended, I thought out of possession—defending the box, defending crosses, dealing with that side of it — we did well.I think we caught them a little off guard, actually, when you look at how they’ve had a lot of success, it’s teams getting after them, opening up spaces for second balls and exposing people to direct play. Whereas, because we had a lot of bodies in the middle of the pitch, I thought we dealt with it quite well.The first half we showed some good moments attacking-wise. We’ll always want more control, and again, I thought we had a couple of phases, especially in the first half, where we sustained it in their half, got into good areas, and found that right blend and balance of attacking quickly and playing territory, but also keeping the ball in the right area of the pitch, which is in and around their box.Then, second half, naturally, you come out and it felt like we got pinned back in. They were chasing a goal, so they commit bodies further forward and become even more direct. We probably didn’t look after the ball as well as we’d like, or progress it up the pitch as well as we’d like. But to get so close is obviously why you get the other emotion on it as well.SC: I don’t want to make it sound like there hasn’t been a whole load of hard work over weeks and months that’s been put into it, but it did feel like, in the first half, things just seemed to click after a few games where you’ve been disappointed with some of the work on the ball…it just felt like it came together on Tuesday. Particularly against the league leaders, that must have been a relief, and encouraging for the rest of the campaign as well.Yeah, I’ve spoken about it a few times. We want a team that’s adaptable, that has variety, that’s unpredictable in how we play that. I genuinely believe it’s one of the hardest ways to coach teams, because you’re empowering the lads to make decisions and feel it in-game.We don’t want to just be a team that goes long, and we don’t want to be a team that just plays short. You want to make the right decision at the right time, which, when players have the licence to do that, naturally they’ll get it wrong sometimes. It’s our job then to coach them so they make the right decision more often than not, and to keep pushing them to do that.I think that’s what then becomes hard to play against. If you’re just direct, or you just play short, eventually teams will find you out and find a way of stopping you. For me, it’s that variety that I enjoy watching, that I think people enjoy watching, and that’s what we saw in the first half the other night—a real variety in what we did.SC: And as you sort of touched on, is it just a matter of having that little bit more composure on the ball if you’re under the cosh, if you’re ahead in the second half against a good team—and you’ll be playing plenty of good teams over the next few weeks — is it just a matter of keeping that composure and having the confidence to try and relieve the pressure when you get the ball?Yeah, definitely — and that is easier said than done sometimes, especially because they commit so many bodies forward to press, leaving spaces in behind them, so we end up countering quite quickly. Then, rather than maybe coming out, allowing people to join the attack and slowing it down a bit, because you’ve got lots of space and opportunities to go to goal, we go early.There were a couple of instances — Kas, Marcus, Alfie— where there were counter-attacking moments and, because they’re such a hard-working team in terms of getting back behind the ball, we’ve then lost it and ended up defending the counter-attack.So I think it’s one of those: the lads put in the right shift the other night, and it’s about how you manage those moments when you’re ahead a little bit, or when the opposition change what they do, how do you adapt what you do to keep controlling the game in the way you want, which for us is primarily with the ball? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comIt feels only appropriate to some of Huddersfield Town’s recent performances that we have to present to you a rather disjointed episode of the We Are Terriers podcast, with David Hartrick (kidney) bravely coming off the bench briefly to offer his thoughts on the 0-0 draw against Port Vale and the 2-2 stalemate against Lincoln City.Is there any excuse fo…

Below are selected highlights from Monday afternoon’s press conference. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed, including Lasse Sorensen’s thoughts.… Adam Pope (BBC Radio Leeds): You said [after the game on Saturday] that you threw every attacking option that you had with you on the day to try and get over the line, but the attacking options didn’t include Alfie May. Obviously, you’ll be asked about a guy that’s a proven goalscorer. You had a conversation with him [on Friday, then] he doesn’t get involved…I mean, how does that conversation go, and how’s he reacted?Alfie was first-class today, and he’s back in contention for tomorrow. I think it’s one of those: he’s had a very bitty start since we’ve been here, obviously, with the red card, wrongly so, then obviously being ill as well. So it’s been very bitty for him, and I had a good chat with him on Friday, about certain bits.I thought was excellent in training today, and he comes into contention for tomorrow,AP: In terms of how that’s perceived, you can understand why people might feel ‘but why isn’t he involved at all, even if it doesn’t start?’. Are you able to sort of cast any light on that?Yeah, there’s certain bits, I think, that are better off kept in-house.There’s no major issue on it. He’s trained OK, I think it’s one of those where there’s competition, we need people at their absolute maximum, and Alfie has shown that today…I thought he was excellent today in training.There’s certain bits behind the scenes that, like I said, there’s no issues whatsoever, which I know people will jump to straight away. Have a terrific relationship with Alfie, and like I said, expect to see him soon.AP: Is that one of the hardest things to manage: you know the reality, and you know what people are saying, but you’re the manager and you’ve got to make the decisions. Is that one of the hardest things — making decisions but not always being able to say maybe exactly what you want to say?Look, my number one thing is to make sure that I manage the group and try to pick a team to win the game, and I think the biggest bit within that is we make sure that we hold the highest standards in the culture that we create and how we communicate, how we work, what we look like day to day.So, of course, there’s certain bits that if you’re a family, that you do keep in-house, and there’s other bits that you can talk around, and there’s other bits that you’ll talk around that will get changed in terms of how people perceive it and read into things. There’s genuinely nothing to read into, and like I said, Alfie is in contention for tomorrow.… Steven Chicken (We Are Terriers): There were individuals on Saturday, like Cameron Humphreys, who was much more forward looking, much more willing to take risks. Is it now just about, ‘right, we’ve got some players doing that, and we’ve had moments where we’ve done that, and it’s now just finding more consistency across the 11 players and across the 90 minutes to show that intent’?Yeah, very much so, very much so. That’s the message: in the right areas, be brave, take risks, ask questions. I spoke to him today about it, actually: the ball that Cam Humphreys played over the top for Ryan Hardie in the second half, there were a couple of moments where we could have done it against Rotherham.Afterwards, we sat showing the video and said ‘look, be brave, take the risk there, play it’.That’s what we do behind the scenes. That’s constant, whether it be Martin [Drury], Steady (Jon Stead), [James] Krause and Chris [Elliott]: all the coaches behind the scenes are grabbing players to show the opportunities where we could play forward and don’t; or to be brave enough, is it the psych aspect, is it mentally being brave enough to take the risk and [not worrying about it going wrong?Sometimes it’s not easy, and it’s about when you feel the energy and the atmosphere on you, how do you stay level? How do you keep those strong behaviours and take the risk at the right time?… SC: You always go over to the fans after a game to applaud them, and you didn’t get a particularly nice response on Saturday. Is that something you need to manage with the lads as a coach? Do you understand where it comes from? And does it just make you feel more like you’ve got a point to prove in the next game?Of course, it’s not nice. We want a strong connection and I think first and foremost, we want the fans on board, and we want them to get behind us, which they have done many times here since I’ve been here. If the lads leave it all out there, I’ll always defend them. I think if it comes down to quality, if it comes down to tactical things, things we can be better at. But we have to control what we can.I think the biggest thing we can control is mentally, where we’re at; the preparation we do for tomorrow; and it comes back to the behaviours and the culture we just spoke about a minute ago, and making sure that we transfer the strong culture we’ve got off the pitch onto the pitch. We need to show a real bravery tomorrow night, and go and show an aggression, a purpose and intent to play forward, like we did at the weekend. I think that’s the starting point to get the fans on board. Naturally, I think the challenge for anybody is — same as the players — rather than kind of turn up and wait to see what happens from the start, take responsibility. That’s the message: turn up and get right behind it.And that’ll be the message for the players: turn up, don’t wait to see what happens and then respond…go and grab the game the second the first whistle goes, and go and be the more dominant team on the pitch, and the more dominant team off the pitch in the stands. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

Below are selected highlights from Wednesday afternoon’s press conference. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed, including Antony Evans’ contribution.Adam Pope (BBC Radio Leeds): After his illness, is Alfie May fit to play at the weekend?Alfie is fit, he’s trained all week, so that’s good news. He’s trained well. We’ve pushed the lads the past couple of days so it’s been a good few days to see the lads on the grass working hard. AP: What’s Lynden Gooch’s situation?Yeah, we’re starting to integrate now. The weekend will be too early for him, but he’s definitely moving in the right direction.AP: Anybody else fit for action or not fit for action that you can tell us about?[Radinio Balker] is unfortunately going to be probably best the part of four weeks with an adductor injury. It’s disappointing. I think he’d obviously put a run of games together and was performing well, so it’s disappointing to lose him, but it’s part and parcel, unfortunately, of the programme that we run and the schedule and the game. So yeah, disappointed to lose him, but it means obviously someone else needs to step up. AP: The chairman issued last night a big rallying cry on his social media to the supporters, basically saying ‘get down and support us’ in a nutshell — how do you feel about that when you hear the chairman do that?I think start with the chairman’s agenda, and I think what can never be questioned is the support, the backing, his intention for the club. I think he’s desperate to be successful here, the same as we all are.I think we’ve all got the same goal, and I think sometimes you get bumps along the way and different challenges. I think we all want to achieve the same thing, and any club that, for me, has any level of success is when everybody’s pulling in the same direction.So again, I think going to the final stage of the season with ten to go, it’s definitely that: let’s all leave everything out there. And again, I think that for me, when I look at the teams, that have done it in the past, it’s when you’ve got that unity and that force from all angles, whether it be from the stands, whether it be on the pitch, whether it be from the senior leaders at the club, the owner…it’s that collective.We all want to do well, trust me, we all want to go out and perform to the highest level and play to our best, and produce a style that entertains the fans as well as winning and getting points as well. We want to try and tick everything, which is challenging at times, it’s difficult, especially when you’ve had transition and change, etc.But for me, I think we’re in a position where we’ve still got so much to play for, so let’s leave it all out there and let’s make sure that in the final ten that we give absolutely everything.Steven Chicken (We Are Terriers): I think a lot of the fans’ objection on Saturday was a bit of a feeling that there was a lack of endeavour from the team. We spoke on Saturday about being man marked out of the game, there weren’t a lot of options all the time — but I think it made the fans feel the intentions of the team weren’t clear. Is that something you’ve worked on this week when it comes to the on the ball work?Yeah, definitely. I watch every game back once, sometimes twice, I'm terribly obsessive, and I totally get it.I think there’s little moments in the game where we definitely [struggle]. That’s the challenge of when you’ve had such a short period and you’re trying to evolve. The team when we came here had scored loads of goals and conceded loads of goals, so you might want to make it a bit harder to beat. You lose some of the goal scorers, you can only concentrate your efforts in certain areas, and personally, I think we’ve got better defensively across the games that we’ve been here.Some of the expense of that is probably some of the attacking stuff. I watched us at the weekend, and at moments we turned down opportunities to go forward, definitely. They’re the bits [we need to work on], I think, and then it’s tough sometimes.It’s never through a lack of intent or will or wanting to do well. It’s the challenge that you have, and that’s why with the coaching behind it, it’s so important to show them pictures and say ‘right, why have we gone square or back there when we could play forward? Why have we thrown it back when we could go forward? Why have we gone square when we could cross it in the box?’It’s affecting the bravery and the risk taking, and naturally I think sometimes when there’s an edge, there’s an uneasiness to it, in every walk of life, it’s not easy to be brave, and there’s an element of pressure, and you feel that little bit.So for me, it’s very much giving the lads the confidence to go and do that, go and take risks and be brave, and if it doesn’t come off, then correct it by responding in the right way — positive body language, working hard, all the bits that I bang on about I think in most interviews. [If we’re going to get it wrong then] let’s get it wrong by taking the risk of being brave and not by shying away from it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comIt was hard to go away from Huddersfield Town’s 1-0 win over Rotherham United without three main takeaways: 1) it was really boring, 2) the Terriers were very lucky to get the win, and 3) a better side than relegation strugglers Rotherham would have won that game.Yes, there’s a defensive improvement, their home results have been strong (even if the perf…

Below are selected highlights from Wednesday afternoon’s press conference. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed, including Murray Wallace’s contribution.Results elsewhere last night didn’t go for you, so you have slipped down to seventh place. Does that change anything now that you’re chasing and not being hunted down?Look, I think I was fully aware when I came in the position the club were in. You’re at the stage of season where teams are catching up their games in hand, so I think when we joined, we could have been 13th if they’d all the game in hand around us. I thought the start we had gave us a bit of consolidation, but we’ve not done well enough on the road recently, which we’re quite honest about. So for me, I can’t focus too much attention on that. We have to make sure that we pick up points, and that starts on Saturday. We’ve been unbeaten here since we’ve come in, the lads have been great, the fans have been great here, we’ve made it a tough place to come. Especially going into the run-in, we’re going to need to continue doing that and beyond it. And then, of course, on the road, we have to address that and make sure that we pick up wins away.Personnel wise, we haven’t seen Bobby Wales for a while. Is there a reason behind that? Is it tactical? Is it fitness?Just competition at the minute, and to be fair he’s trained much better this week in terms of he’s shown some really good attributes. We’ve obviously had Alfie back around it, Hardie coming back, so we’ve got competition in the squad. And to be fair to Bobby, my job is obviously to manage that, to communicate with the lads, to explain why, to support them and have the staff around to support them to do what they need to. Then it’s about raising your level, and when you look at, say, the performance last week, it gives the opportunity for other people potentially, so that everybody needs to know they’re under pressure to deliver the second the game starts.Usual question on Bojan Radulovic — is he still on track to come back as scheduled?Yes. The good news is he’s been out= doing really low-key stuff. He’s still a few weeks away, but he’s definitely heading the right direction.It was the the challenge of January in terms, when you look at what the team lost, from the goal perspective, so to have someone like him back will be massive, but we want to get him back, and keep him back, of course.I think you’ve seen with Ryan Hardie that we will take risk. We’re at that stage of the season where we’ve got so much to play for that we’ve thrown him in arguabl a couple of weeks ahead of where he should be, so we’ve had to be a little bit smart with how we’ve managed him.It will be similar with Bojan: we’ll see how he goes and see what risks we can take. Naturally, I tend to push to get him back as quick as I can, because obviously he was someone who was big part why I joined and someone I was really looking forward to working with, and someone that obviously has had such a strong season at the level. So yeah, we want to get him back as soon as we can. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comHuddersfield Town’s problems away from home continued as they fell to a thoroughly uninspiring 1-0 defeat away to Wigan Athletic.That has put the We Are Terriers podcast in the mood to dole out a paddling to a side that let the game get away from them as they ended up more worried about what a bottom-half side might do to them than they were about creat…

Below are selected highlights from Wednesday afternoon’s press conference. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed, including Lee Nicholls’ contribution.Liam ManningCan we start with just a quick reflection on Saturday, everyone who was involved, did they come through all OK, you happy with where the squad’s at? Yeah, I’m happy where the squad’s at, definitely. I’m trying to think now, Saturday feels like a long time ago because we’ve had training time, which is rare!The group’s in a good spot. I think it was a strong performance and a strong result at the weekend, which was much needed, and I’m really pleased for the lads in terms of how they went about the game and had to respond from being a goal behind to win. That’s obviously a new experience for the group since I’ve been here, but I think it’s something that hadn’t been done a huge number of times this season.That’s definitely something that will stand us in good stead in the final games going into it, and that belief that we can do it and we know how to do it, you know, I think was a real big positive.How’s Mickel Miller doing?He’s back in training now. After Stevenage, he’d rolled his ankle and it swelled up quite a bit, but it’s settled, he’s training, and he seems in a much better spot.You’re away from home this weekend, and Town have only won five on the road this season. How do you go about replicating those performances that we’ve seen at home, on the road, and find a bit more consistency?They’re different challenges, right? Stevenage is a really good example, when you look at the setup, the pitch…there’s so many other factors which are a part of it.It’s more in terms of understanding, like at Peterborough, how do we impose ourselves on the game? So home or away, it’s that same feeling. The home form has to underpin everything, but then on the road, of course, it’s a case of, how do we go and impose ourselves on Wigan at the weekend? How do we go and find a way to win? Ultimately, that’s the challenge.Joe Taylor is in a real purple patch of form. Is there any part of you, Liam, and I know you can’t control it specifically. You’re a little bit envious that he’s over at Wigan at the moment!Yeah, of course, he’s scoring goals, right?I spoke to Joe on the phone a few weeks ago. I thought it was really important for him to know that I was going to track him, keep an eye on him, I picked up the phone and spoke with him, and said ‘look, go and show what you can do, go and perform’.So yeah, I’m really pleased for him, first and foremost, to go out and to do what he’s done. For us, there is a frustration that we haven’t got him, but there’s an element of positive side where he’s doing well, but know he’s ours for the future still.For any front player, when they’re scoring goals, they’re at their most confident. It’ll be great for Joe, and I’m obviously pleased he can’t play at the weekend, but beyond that I hope he does well for him personally but also for us when he comes back in the summer. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comHuddersfield Town put in a miserably listless performance in defeat to Doncaster on Tuesday night, but brought their winless run to an end with a comeback victory over Barnsley on Saturday afternoon.Does Ryan Hardie offer hope Town can now get back on track? Should Cameron Ashia be starting games? And what shape is best for the Terriers in the coming we…

Below are selected highlights from Monday afternoon’s press conference. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed, including Cameron Humphreys’ contribution.Liam ManningWe’ll start with team news, unfortunately, and ask for an update on Marcus McGuane after he came off on Saturday?Yeah, there’s a slight strain, but it’s looking at probably two to three weeks, which is good news, to be fair — naturally, when you go off that early and looking how he did, you worry. But fortunately it’s only a slight strain.You’ve got a couple of options, I know Antony Evans was involved on the bench and came on against Doncaster in the Trophy — is he getting closer to being involved in the league?Yeah, very much so. He’s in a good spot. He’s definitely one that is close to being in contention, so it’s good to have him back. I think he’s shown some real quality in training, and he’s only going to continue to improve the more work we get into him.Everyone else who was involved down at Stevenage all come through OK?Yeah, [Mickel Miller] is the other one — he’s rolled his ankle. He was limping around a bit, I think, it was quite clear from the sidelines, so he’s struggling a bit with that. But apart from, apart from that, no other major issues. How do you reflect on Saturday, then, a few days on?It’s a tough one to break it down. I think even watching it back, it such a hard place to go, but I think what you have to do is make the game look how you want. If you try and play them at their game, they’re used to doing it and will come out on top, which is probably what happened second half.I thought first half, the first 10 minutes were under a little bit of pressure, but then I thought we did a really good job, especially last 15 minutes of the first half, of wrestling control back and playing in their half. There’s some decent half-chances, some corners, some territory, playing around their box, rather than our half. But in the second half we never really got going in terms of imposing our style on the game. We tried to play them at theirs, and like you see, we ended up coming out second best at that.But even then, it’s probably more the frustration, the manner of the goal, I think, feels like it was an us rather than [Stevenage]. We were five minutes away from taking a hard=earned point, albeit with a difficult performance in a difficult setting against a difficult team. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comHuddersfield Town had a week to forget as they crashed out of the Vertu Trophy at the quarter-finals and suffered their first defeat of Liam Manning’s tenure, away to Stevenage.What went wrong for the Terriers across the two games? And did the head coach get his setup wrong against Stevenage, or did the players let him down, was it a little of both — an…

Below are selected highlights from Wednesday afternoon’s press conference. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed, including Marcus McGuane’s contribution.Louis Reynolds (BBC Radio Leeds): I know it’s only a few hours on, but we’ll just start with how are you feeling about last night now that you’ve slept on it?Well, or not slept on it, is the case.I went back last night and watched it back.To be fair, naturally, I think you get a real low after the way we lost it on penalties, and how the penalties went, etc, so that obviously doesn’t help the emotion and the feeling.So I always like to go back and watch it analyse and I get the analytical side, but I also get the emotional side, which I think is important. So, yeah, really disappointed. I think when you watch it back — and probably my feeling that I spoke about in here last night was probably quite accurate — I thought we had some really, really good passages and good control, restricted them to one shot on target the whole game [and that was their penalty], and then loads of the ball, but probably not enough conviction or purpose first half.Then second half, they had more of the ball, but all in front of us and in their half of the pitch. For me, we carried a real threat, and their keeper has made three, four excellent saves.We’ve had some other terrific opportunities: the Dion [Charles] one, Alfie [May]’s off a set piece. We’ve had numerous good opportunities.That’s why, when I step back, I think if you play that game ten times over, you don’t finish 1-1 in most of them. I think with the chances we created and the performance, I think you win a lot more. So that’s the bit that we have to take from it. It doesn’t mean that we accept losing, because I don’t like it, but at the same time, another way we look at it is if we continue to perform like that and create the chances we did and restrict them to one shot on target, we’ve got a much greater chance of winning those games again in the future.LR: What have you learned over the last few days about a group of players that is still relatively new to you?I think it’s continuous learning about the team, learning about individuals, learning about the culture. It’s only been three weeks, madly. It feels a lot longer with probably how the games have gone and the stress we’ve all gone through and the toll it’s taken on us.But they’re the bits where you learn a lot about the group. And I think last night’s another one from behind, come back to 1-1, penalties...it’s [learning] how the lads have coped with those situations.It’s constant, and I don’t think you ever go ‘right, I’m finished learning about the group’. We challenge them and we push them and we coach them, and our job is to stretch them and take them outside their comfort zone, and reflect on experiences like we’ve had. It’s a continuous process that never stops. We’re constantly learning about the lads and constantly trying to push them to become better, ultimately.LR: Can I ask you about Cam Ashia — just how impressed have you been since you’ve come to the club with him as a young player? I spoke about Cam, I think it was yesterday…I’ve done a lot of press recently, so forget when it was.But I spoke about Cam in terms of a really exciting, really high potential player. I think the challenge naturally with young players, and having spent many years myself in player development, is knowing what it takes in terms of turning really high potential into consistent performances. He gets you off your seat, he excites me. I like watching it when he gets the ball, because you’re not sure what’s going to happen. He puts fear into defenders and puts them on the back foot, and he can produce moments that we as coaches mustn’t stifle. I think that’s really important. We give scope for creativity and, at the right times and in the right area to pitch, for players to express themselves. I’m big on that.Then around it, there’s non-negotiables that if you want to be a strong team and you want to be relentless with winning games and be successful at the level, you need everybody to contribute.Those are the bits that I think, naturally, sometimes with young players, you need to keep working out and you need to keep doing video work and having conversations. But look, he’s someone that we really like, he’s someone that’s done extremely well in the last two games, and I’m sure he’s going to continue to contribute over the next 15.Steven Chicken (We Are Terriers): Is there a chance Ryan Hardie might be in contention for this weekend?Too early. He’ll be training next week, so it’s a little early for Saturday [against Stevenage or] Tuesday [against Doncaster], but in terms of expecting him back with the group training: back end of next week. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

Liam ManningKatherine Hannah (BBC Radio Leeds): Just to check on some team news, first of all, for tomorrow, you talked about Sean Roughan and Jack Whatmough getting a bit closer — are they in contention, potentially?For Jack it’s a little bit early. Sean and [Antony] Evans are two that are in contention to be involved in slightly different capacities with where they’re at and what stages and how long they’ve obviously been out on back training. So they’re two that come back into contention.KH: And am I right in thinking still too soon for Ryan Hardie?Too soon, but he was on the grass this morning doing some good work. He’s progressing well, to be fair — it was nice to see him out striking a few balls this morning.KH: Alfie May is not suspended for the Trophy. Do you see this as an opportunity to get him some minutes and keep him ticking over until he’s available for League One again?Yeah, naturally, I think it makes sense, obviously, given the spread of the ban and how that looks. It’s no secret that it’s quite likely he’ll play, to be honest. So yeah, we can keep him in ticking over which, which helps when you’re naturally going to miss a few weeks, to be able to put a good level game in. Obviously, it will definitely benefit him, and obviously keep him in a better spot when he’s able to return. KH: Do you see the Doncaster game then as an opportunity to give minutes to players who’ve not had the opportunity to feature? I think the first thing to probably put out there is that we want to win. I think that whatever team we decide, it will be to win the game. You create a culture, and anything I do, I want to win, whether it be with my seven year old son at home, whether it be a pre-season game, whether it be a league match — for me, that you can’t turn that on and off.So it’s something that we have to have in our culture, where we’re hungry to win, and hungry to step up and progress in this competition. Then it’s picking a team that I think is able to do that. With the depth we’ve got, with the competition, with I think what we’ve seen in the four games we’ve done so far in changing personnel with subs coming on and having an impact…we have got some depth. We’ve got some people that have given me some good headaches during games with the impact they’ve had coming off the bench, or people that have started.So, yes, one of those where we’ll try and find the right blend and balance, and we’re fortunate in that position where we can make some changes and still maintain strength.KH: Will Alves is somebody who’s not had much of an opportunity under your stewardship as yet. What does he need to be doing more of to be pushing for an opportunity back in the first team?I’ve sat with Will and had a chat around this situation.He’s someone I really like. I think he’s been quite unfortunate, if you look at the flow and the context of the games — the first two were red cards, and the profile of player Will is, we’ve obviously gone for a Lasse in midfield because of the defensive qualities when you’re down to 10 men.So he’s definitely been a little bit of a victim of our first four games, in terms of what we’ve needed in-game to see a game out or to get it over the line. He’s trained really well, his attitude has been fantastic, he will get opportunities. He’s someone that, let’s be really clear, I do like, and I think is someone that will have impact between now and the end of the season, and he’s just got to be ready when that opportunity arises.KH: It would be easy to sulk, wouldn’t it, as a young player, you’re desperate to get your opportunity. But from what you’ve said there, that doesn’t sound like how he’s reacted to it at all.Definitely not, and that’s something that we can’t allow in our culture. Nobody, nobody will ever be bigger than the team. For me, we can’t allow that. We won’t have it in terms of disappointments. Disappointment’s OK, because you want people that care [if they’re not playing], but then ultimately, when you then train on a Friday, your job is to get your teammates ready for the Saturday, so you can’t sulk because you’ll be letting the people around you down.We’re only as strong as our weakest link. It’s a bit of a cliche, but very true. So I think it’s really important, and Will epitomises [what we want] in terms of how he’s gone about it: he’s got his head down worked.Cam Ashia, again, you see, obviously comes on [and scores against Blackpool], hadn’t featured in the first three, and things change quickly for him.All the lads can control is being ready, and by not reacting and not training and not doing things in the right way, that gets you further from the team. Trust me, if anyone doesn’t do it properly, they won’t be involved.Mickel MillerKH: The league is set aside for the time being, because it’s Vertu Trophy tomorrow night, and that’s something that you’ve had great previous experience with —you’ve been all the way to Wembley twice with both Rotherham and with Plymouth.Now that we’re at the quarter finals, do you sense a slight shift in emphasis with this competition, where it starts to get a little bit more serious as that possibility of going to Wembley again comes a little bit closer? Oh, definitely. I always said that this, once you start off in this cup and it’s at the group stages, everyone thinks, ‘ah, it’s just the Papa John’s Trophy’, or whatever.But as soon as you get to the quarters and you know you’re like, two games away from Wembley, it all changes. Everything shifts. We’re in it and it’s a great opportunity to go and do something again this season, along with the league. It could turn a good season into a great season, so it’s exciting.KH: You can’t overlook an opportunity to play at Wembley, an opportunity to lift a trophy. There’s not many players that get that opportunity, are there? So you can’t dismiss it.No, 100%. I just think that being a player myself and being around loads of players, you see how many players actually go through their careers and don’t actually win anything, and obviously me actually winning something, I’m so grateful. I see this opportunity that we have as players at Huddersfield, it’s a cracking opportunity to go out there and put our mark down at Huddersfield, and give the fans something, give ourselves something, our families — everyone that’s supporting us and been rooting for us. So like I said, it’s a great opportunity to go and do something.KH: And success breeds success, so progress in this trophy can only be a good thing for feeding into the rest of the league campaign, can’t it?No, exactly that. It’s just about building momentum. So the more we keep winning, the more we do well in the cup, we go and win the cup that this carries on to into the league. So it’s just yeah, it’s about building.SC: You’ve talked about that spirit and how hard it is to come back from adversity…you’ve had significant adversity in all four games under the new gaffer. Does that come from the new gaffer? Is it that replacing Lee [Grant] was that just a bit of a spur for the players? Is it a bit of everything?I think it’s hard to pinpoint. Like, you say ‘is it the change of gaffer’ and stuff like that…I don’t really want to get too much into that, but all I know is that it’s just that anywhere, when new people come in, everyone has to basically prove themselves again.So the new gaffer coming in, he’s great tactically, he gives us loads of information, drives the standards high. I’m not saying Lee didn’t do that, he did that as well, but I just think it’s that other side now that everyone is literally playing for their shirt again, everyone needs to prove themselves to someone again. So it naturally raises everyone’s game.SC: Just going back to that game at the weekend…I don’t want to take any credit at all away from the comeback, because I think maybe a few weeks ago, you don’t get back into that one. But is there a bit of a sense, when you reflect on it, that you shouldn’t have been two goals down? What’s the meetings been like with the gaffer in the days since?I think we look at it from a point of view that it was basically a good thing out of a bad situation. Of course we’re not happy with the point. We’re at home, we’re literally hard to beat at home, and it’s our stomping grounds, so no one should be able to come here and score two goals that they did.But you know, being in that situation, getting a point from no points, that’s how we’re looking at it, and it’s just about sticking out the positives and rather than negatives. We’ve sat down and we’ve gone through the goals and stuff like that, and the gaffer has made it clear. He speaks to us collectively, points out individuals if they need to be pointed out, and we’ve gone over that, and we’ll learn from it and move forward. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comHuddersfield Town rescued a point from two goals down on a day of both positive and negative lessons for head coach Liam Manning to take away.We discuss the changes Manning made, why things didn’t work in the first half, and what changed to help Town get things back on track.Plus, we talk about the new arrivals and departures on transfer deadline day.If…

Below are selected highlights from Wednesday afternoon’s press conference. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed.Jack Conlon (BBC Radio Leeds): I’ll start with the three extra additions on deadline day. I’ll start with Bobby Wales and Ryan Hardie first — just how pleased are you to get those over the line and what are they going to offer?Yeah, delighted with them, but also the business I think that was done in January with the additions that were made. Starting with Bobby, he’s one that we’ve been tracking a little while, to be fair, and done a decent amount of work on, so I had a decent understanding of him. So again, I think he’s a good addition for us.Then obviously Ryan as well, he’s someone that I’ve coached against numerous times, and I know what qualities he brings and how proven he is at the level. Obviously, with Bojan [Radulovic] getting injured, we knew it was an area of pitch that we needed to add to in terms of not just depth, but also quality as well, which I’m delighted we’ve been able to do. JC: On the flip side, Ruben Roosken and Herbie Kane leaving the club — what’s the rationale behind those decisions?I think there are two aspects. I think Herbie, when you look at it, obviously coming back from an injury…I had a good chat with Herbie. I like him, I like some of his qualities, but I was quite straight and honest with him, I think, in terms of game time might be quite tough to come by, just given the volume of players that we’ve got in there. Naturally, when you come in you go with people, and he’s working back to fitness, so there was people ahead of him. So for me, then the decision, do you keep him around for the final third of the season to be part of it, or actually, do we go right, ‘let’s get fit, let’s game some minutes, let’s have a good look at him playing games and and see how he does on that?’ So that was the decision there.And similarly, I think Ruben, when you look at it, he wasn’t making squads with Bali [Mumba] coming in, and [Mickel Miller back again].I think it was a terrific opportunity for the club as well, and that was ultimately the decision that we made in terms of us being really happy with what we’ve got, and at the same time, the deal was really, really good for us.JC: How do you rate the window overall and the squad you’ve been left with, albeit, I appreciate you were only here for half of it?Really pleased, really pleased, with first and foremost, what was here.I came here to work with a group that was here currently, and I’ve been really pleased with how the group we’ve got has responded. Then if you if you go through it and what we’ve managed to add in terms of slight differences in profile and physicality, which I think the group needed.So, yeah, I’ve been really pleased with the window, and the biggest bit is I’m pleased with the squad we’ve now got going into the final three months of the season.Steven Chicken (We Are Terriers): You’ve actually got two centre forwards this weekend, with Bobby in as well [as Dion Charles]. Is it a case for you now weighing up whether you want them both on from the start or you want one from the bench so you can switch them out?I can’t be telling you what I’m thinking before a game!No, of course. We obviously spoke last week around what I felt we needed, and that was obviously an area to pitch that we needed options. That’s why I quite like, if you look at the three that we’ve got, Ryan [Hardie] is obviously back [from injury] soon, but with Ryan, with Bobby, with Dion, I think you’ve got three different types, different profiles, which maybe we can cause the opposition, different problems in different ways.So whether it be one up, whether it be two up, I think we’ve already shown in games that we’re happy to change and we’re not fixed and set on it that it has to be one up top. You want elements of the players to be fluid. So I’m delighted that we’ve got a variety of profiles at that end of the pitch, and it gives me different options and different ways of using them. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comLiam Manning’s winning start to life as Huddersfield Town head coach now stands at three games after victories over Luton and Peterborough, despite he Terriers having to fight back through adversity in both games.This week’s We Are Terriers podcast reflects on both victories, including our thoughts on Alfie May’s red card, Ryan Ledson’s sensational goal…

Below are selected highlights from Wednesday afternoon’s press conference. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed.Liam Manning Adam Pope (BBC Radio Leeds): Alfie May is looking at a four game ban at the moment because of an early red card. Is there any thoughts of the appeal that was mentioned last night.Yeah, we’re going to appeal it, I think only on the grounds that there’s no intent. Speaking with Alfie and when you see it, we’re not questioning whether he pulled Kasey Palmer’s hair, but there was zero intent, it’s completely accidental. If you watch the video back, quite clearly, he’s trying to grab his shoulder and pull him back, which is part of football, the contact that comes with playing the game. But unfortunately, he’s grabbed it, he’s let go of it straight away, and then apologised afterwards, but I think he was put down with violent conduct. It was definitely not that. So for me, we’ve appealed it, and hopefully common sense prevails.AP: You also had an injury to Bojan Radulovic yesterday. How is he?Yeah, he’s a little bit sore this morning, he’ll have scans tomorrow.To know definitively what we’re dealing with, and the time frames on it, and everything that everybody want to know, we can’t really answer it until we know the outcome of that scan this tomorrow morning.AP: If you are to be without those two players at the weekend at Peterborough, have you seen enough to suggest that you can re-fashion the team in a way that can be as effective as it has been so far?I think you probably saw it for 70 minutes last night, right?I think that that’s what we have got. We have got depth. We have got options. We have got different profiles. We have got really high quality amongst the group. People forget it’s a 50-game season. You need the squad.I’m sure previously, other people were injured, and everyone’s asking same questions — ‘you’ve got this one missing’. But what we’ve got is people ready to step in.We trained this morning with the lads that didn’t play last night or weren’t involved, or some of the subs, and the session was top this morning. I thought the attitude, the behaviour, the competitiveness, the work this morning was excellent, and that then means people are ready to step in when called upon. I referenced David Kasumu Last night, someone that wasn’t involved at the weekend, then four days later, it’s on the bench because of how he applied himself in training on Monday. He comes on last night and does exactly what the team needs and puts in a really, really strong performance. That, for me, is the Football League. It can happen so quick when you’ve got so many games and injuries, suspensions, form, people hitting a hot streak…you need to put them in at the right time, the same as when someone’s having a dip, you might need to pull them out. And that’s why it’s it’s not the starting 11 always. It’s very much the depth for the 20-25 that you’ve got. Steven Chicken (We Are Terriers): The nature of the last couple of games you’ve not been able to use someone like Will Alves, who maybe in other circumstances you throw them on. Are you looking forward to getting the chance to play some of those players, if you can keep 11 men on the pitch? Yeah, I had a chat with will about it today, and he was excellent today in training. I thought his quality, as well as his attitude and application, were excellent.So, yeah, I’ve had that chat and it was pretty much what you just said there — you know, I really like some of the bits I’ve seen, be patient, stick at it, keep working hard and be ready when called upon.What I can’t do is tell him when that will be and again, I think that’s the kind of the same message for the whole group: be ready when you called upon, and then it’s on them to give me a headache.That’s what I liked across the last two games, even last night, with the subs coming on. Dion had such good impact and done exactly what we’ve needed in those moments, and that that’s what being a strong team is all about, having people that you know are ready when called upon.Bali MumbaAP: Liam’s managed to get off to a great start: two clean sheets, two wins. Where do you feel, after being with him for eight days now, he can improve you? What do you need to improve yourself?I feel like we’ve already started this morning, in fact. He pulled me in the office, we had a chat, just a general chat, just about life and stuff, how’s things going, and then we went into further details with the game and football and stuff. He’s one of the managers that’s willing to help you with your performance. He says it doesn’t really matter on whether it’s your strengths or your weakness, both of them — he’s willing to help you whether it’s something that you’re really quite good at, to get better at that and really hit a good level with that, or whether something that needs to be improved.He’s willing to do both jobs and help you improve as a player, which is always nice. So yeah, we did speak about that this morning in terms of just obviously positioning when defending and stuff like that, which is quite key. It’s something that we can obviously work on one at a time, and then before we move on to the next thing that we need to improve on. SC: Talking to Ryan Ledson the other day, said he feels like Liam has taken off a little bit under Lee. And do you feel like as an attacking player, he’s giving you that freedom?Yeah, 100%, every game. The last two games, in the team talks that we’ve had, the last thing he always says that sticks with me is he always says, ‘Be fearless’. He tells everyone you know, be fearless. That obviously goes a long way in terms of out of possession, in possession, just be fearless. Be you, express yourself. He’s not one of them that they will judge you by your mistakes or what you do, as long as it’s a positive action. That’s something that as a player, you want to hear — you want to go into the game knowing ‘I can try things, I can take a risk, because obviously the manager obviously wants me to play with that fearless mindset’. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

Below are selected highlights from Monday afternoon’s press conference. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed.Liam ManningLouis Reynolds (BBC Radio Leeds): You’ve almost set that bar now, haven’t you, for what fans can expect from your side?Yeah, and let’s be clear, I’ve used that with the lads. I think that’s the bit for me, is how do you make those behaviours into habit.It’s like how the FA Cup’s a great competition, and you can raise your game for the odd one, but if you want to achieve anything and sustain success over a period of time and win game after game, you have to make the behaviours that we showed on Saturday habit, and that’s the bit that we’ve spoken to the lads about: the desire to run, the intensity, the duels, the togetherness, the spirit, the emotion, but the control with the emotion. I think that that’s equally important.You saw so much of that on Saturday, and like I said, that’ll be my challenge. The players should be desperate to get out there tomorrow night, to go again, and we have to — win, lose or draw, play well, play poorly — what’s non-negotiable is showing the intent that we showed at the weekend.LR: When you talk about habits and non-negotiables, how difficult or easy is it, from a coaching point of view, to ingrain that into players?I think it depends on the group you work with, but I can’t speak highly enough of the lads since me, Martin and James have come in to work with them, I think they’ve been really receptive to the bits we’ve challenged them with.I think football’s analysed so much nowadays that there’s so much made around rotation and shapes and patterns, and of course, there’s huge parts of those that are important, but what has to always underpin it is the will to win and the desire to work. That’s what the lads have done since day one of us joining, and we have to push them to continually do that — and the second someone steps off it, it’s my job, it’s the staff’s job, but it’s also the [layers’ job to make sure that we hold each other to account, to what we expect in those behaviours. Saturday was a real, good example of what it has to look like.LR: Chatting to some fans after the weekend…there’s 18 games to go, and yes, there is a bit of a gap between yourselves and the top two, but a lot of the consensus was ‘our season starts today’. What is in your mind the next 18 games? What’s the remit? How are you envisaging it unfolding?We want to win as many as we can.Any fan, any player, any staff member should dream big. You have to, I think. No-one wants me to come in here and squash ambition and dreams — you’d be mad to do that. But we also have to understand, how do we do that? And that’s for me, where I chunk it up. 18 games is too far away to get targets and projections. We have to concentrate and get it right tomorrow, otherwise where we’re at in 18 games won’t be where we want it.So like I said, there’s a real skill, and we have to celebrate the wins, we have to enjoy it, the same as we have to hurt after the losses, but you have to bounce back quickly — and that’s everyone associated with the club, and that’s what we have to do.I said to the lads on Saturday, ‘enjoy it, go home, make sure then Sunday, you rest, you recover, and your head’s on Tuesday, then when we’re at the end of the season, look back and make sure we have no regrets on what we did in the 19 games that we had.’Ryan LedsonLouis Reynolds (BBC Radio Leeds): How have you found the first few days working under Liam?Good, positive. I’ve played against his teams for the past two years in the Championship. He and his coaching staff have come in with real energy, real intent, so yeah, positive start so far.LR: And on Saturday, it was the best start possible, wasn’t it? I mean, it was some atmosphere, some performance. Talk us through your reflections of that game. Brilliant. Absolutely loved it from start to finish. I thought the energy in the ground from the fans was top, and we really fed off that.I thought to a man, everyone was on top form, and we sort of we own them one. You look back at the game at their place, for the first half an hour, 35 minutes, we battered them, in all honesty, and that hurt us — it still did. So Saturday was about getting one back over on them, and really putting it to them, and I think we were unlucky not to be three up again at half time — we should have been. So, you know, it felt nice — but it’s just a start.LR: There is, of course, a gap between yourselves and the top two. Is that still a realistic target for you as players?Of course it is. But we’re not focusing on that at the minute, we’re focused on ourselves, focusing on game at a time, performances and points. If we get performances, we know in this league we’ll climb the table. So obviously, the aim is to win as many games as possible, including the cups.LR: What’s the message been from Liam on that front?It’s more positivity, more shackles off, just enjoy it. Like, obviously we’re all good players. It’s more the mental side of it and sort of us forgetting being us. It’s ‘be you, be what you come to the club for’, and that goes for everyone.LR: Did you feel you need Liam to come in to release those shackles?Yeah, listen, sometimes it’s a difficult one. If you can get yourself into a bit of a rut and getting the same messages, maybe just a little freshen up can kickstart people again, and hopefully that will be the case This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comHuddersfield Town have a real opportunity to kickstart their season properly after claiming an important victory in the West Yorkshire derby over Bradford City.What did Liam Manning do differently to get that performance in a high-pressure game? Who were the key players who could play a big part under the new head coach? How do we expect Town to do from…

Below are selected highlights from Friday afternoon’s press conference with new Huddersfield Town head coach Liam Manning. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed.There will be no weekly digest from us this week as we couldn’t even begin to do a meaningful predicted line-up and we’re not sure you need telling what this weekend’s game is all about.Injury news is that Herbie Kane has been back in training all week while Jack Whatmough and Antony Evans have been integrating back in with the rest of the side. Sean Roughan remains sidelined.We will also have an exclusive interview with Huddersfield Town sporting director Chris Markham for our paying subscribers at teatime today so keep your eyes peeled for that and get signed up if you aren’t already to make sure you get access.What do you make of the squad so far?Yeah, I think you can do all the video work, you can watch games, you can try and get up to speed with things, as we have at the start of this week — But there’s nothing like being on the grass with the lads and getting a real feel for them and physically what they’re like, understanding their connection, their relationship, the culture we’ve got see.I’ve been really pleased with how they applied themselves this week. It’s been a real buzz about the place, naturally, I think when you have a change, but I’ve been really pleased, looking forward to seeing what they can take into the game.Was that part of the attraction of taking the job, because it is a good squad with a lot of talented players who are perhaps underachieving?Anytime, I think it’s the group that you’re going to work with [that appeals]. I think when you look at it, there’s a huge amount of experience at this level, a huge amount of success. I think there’s some really exciting lads that I think can hit levels higher than what they might have shown so far this season.So I think that’ll be my job, to challenge them on that. I think there’s a lot of potential to achieve and still to come. So yeah, that was one of the biggest attractions, was the current playing group, and what I think we can get out of them.What sort of football does a Liam Manning side look like?I spoke about it the other day — because I just spent a few years working with City Group, this perception gets built up around possession, etc.But think if you look at the groups I work with, especially obviously at Bristol City, where we have a decent amount of success, it starts with the behaviours: people that are honest, people that are hard-working, people that show a level of intensity and aggression and a real purpose through all their actions. That doesn’t mean they’re always going to get things right, but I think in terms of a starting point, it’s that.Then after that, for me, it’s how to attack, and there’s different ways to do that. You can be direct, you can go behind, you can go through…it’s finding different ways to attack to hurt the opposition, and all about being hard to beat without the ball winning your duels, winning your battles, and being organised as a group.What’s the priority then: winning, or winning in a certain style?The position I’m in and the learnings I’ve had in the numerous games I’ve done so far, I think the priority is winning, and to be clear I want to win tomorrow, I think I’d take that over the performance.And then, of course, I think if you want to sustain winning, the performance then becomes equally important.So I think you can win the odd game by playing off the cuff or having no real identity, but I think in terms of if you want to consistently win, if you look at teams historically, that have gone on to have success and win over and over again, you have to be clear on what you’re doing, which in football is the biggest challenge.It’s like here, we’ve got some talented individual players so it’s how do you get a group to be aligned on the same page? I think that’s often the challenge in football, so that’s the bits that we’ve been trying to address and work on this week.You’ve talked about how you want to play forward, you want to be brave — would you say that’s a fair assessment of the style of football we can expect?Yeah, I hope so, that’s what I want. That’s what we’ll be pushing the lads to do. Naturally, will they always get it right? No, so again, I think there will be moments where they can play forward and maybe go square or back instead.But my job behind the scenes — and the staff that we have — is to coach them to be brave, to play forward, to ask questions, and naturally in the game, you can’t always do that — but it’s about not playing it square or back when we’ve got that opportunity to go and hurt the opposition.That’s the big bit for me. We want to create, we want to dominate games, but we want to do it in the right areas of the pitch, which is as close to their goal as possible. This is a public episode. 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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comWe’ve seen Huddersfield Town in action twice this week, but most analysis of those games has gone out the window on the latest episode of the We Are Terriers podcast following Lee Grant’s dismissal as manager.So how come the manager was never able to get his side performing consistently? Is anything likely to be different under the new boss — whomever t…

Below are selected highlights from Thursday afternoon’s press conference. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed.Lee GrantKatherine Hannah (BBC Radio Leeds): The new arrival announced today, then — Bali Mumba. What can you tell us about him and what he will bring to Huddersfield Town? Firstly, we’re delighted he’s joined us, and I think it’s a really positive signing for the football club, I have to say. He’s a player I’ve liked for a long time, I told Bali this yesterday — it was three or four years ago down at Portman Road, and he cut in from the right and put one in top bins.That sticks in my memory, and he’s been in my radar since that moment, I have to be honest.But he’s a player that can play across several positions, so we’ve seen him ply his trade across the front line for Plymouth, we’ve seen him play his trade at both wing-back positions and full-backs not out of the question for him. And that is obviously a huge tick in the column for us in terms of where he can ply his trade.But the other part of it is his age, and think he’s a really good footballer as well, so we’re excited by that one, and we’re really pleased with how the windows open up so farKH: Will he be available to play this weekend?He will be, because he’s played a lot of minutes, if you look over the festive period, and I think his last 90 minutes was against Burton, in fact. He’s trained with us today, he’s in a good place, so of course, we’ve got to think about the big picture in the context of just being in the building. But yeah, he’ll be in a place where he’ll be available.Steven Chicken (We Are Terriers): I appreciate you may not want to give too much away ahead of potentially his debut, but where do you see Bali fitting into this side? We know that he’s a very versatile player…Yeah, and in all honesty, I would like to keep that up my sleeve and cards close to my chest on that one,Bali can play as a left wing-back, he can play as a right wing-back, he can play as a full-back on either side at a stretch. He can play as a right winger or a left winger. He can play in the pocket on the left side, on the right side, and he can play as a forward off the striker on either side of the pitch.So apart from central midfield, which I’m not sure I’ve seen him play, or with a pair of [goalie] gloves on either, he can probably play in most of the positions.Mine and Bali’s conversation this morning centred around probably keeping those options fewer, rather than keeping the scope hugely wide, just because he’s got a lot to take in at the moment: he’s got new surroundings, new training ground, new teammates, new everything, so we probably don’t want Bali to try to absorb seven different positions worth of information over the next few weeks.But, yeah, we also want to be able to utilise him, as and when, wherever we think he can be effective.KH: You said there you’re pleased with how the squad is shaping up this January window. Can you give us an idea of what the plan is? Where do you want to be by the end of January?Stronger than where we started, and that really is it in a nutshell, Katherine.We feel like we’ve made good strides on that already, and I think the January window for every club is tricky to navigate, sure, but if you can come out of it with a feeling of ‘we feel as though we’ve improved the squad picture’, then that’ll be a huge bonus for everybody. I think we’re taking great strides towards that already, and I’m pleased with what we’ve done, and that has to be the aim.KH: Still more to come, do we expect?Yeah, it’s tough to say. As I said right at the beginning, I think I said we have to be ready to adapt to any situation. We have to be able to assess and understand the needs of all of the players that are in the building.So do I see the picture changing? Probably yes, if I’m being really honest. I think the squad probably will look slightly different than what it looks today, but in reality, that’s by one or two players in either direction.So as I said, we’ve got to be ready to move and adapt and obviously, of course, see how things progress in terms of fitness, availability, injury and form across the next couple of weeks.KH: It’s a nice position to be in that you were getting, clearly, the backing from your owner and chairman. It doesn’t sound like you’ve had to fight too hard for him to open the chequebook?Well, I think if you look at the signings we brought in in the window, of course, we’re always trying to look at things from a business perspective and balance the books, so that’s important.We’ve taken strides to do that in this window as well, as we did in the window before, with [selling] Sorba [Thomas] and with Brodie [Spencer]. So that’s obviously important.But yes, without doubt, having a chairman that is prepared to react when a situation arises, as we’ve seen in Bali’s case — he’s one that will be important for the football club as well, it’s a sound piece of business, and for me personally, of course, it’s a positive without a doubt.KH: Any team news ahead of the weekend?No, nothing significant. Obviously, Alfie had his knock prior to Rotherham, so we’re delighted he came through the game OK and with no adverse reactions post-game either. The injured ones are the injured ones, and Sean [Roughan] and Jack [Whatmough] and Herbie [Kane] are pushing, and [Antony] Evans are all pushing really hard on the training ground and doing what they can. But of course, still a bit to go for most of those.But yeah, other than that, as we were.SC: So all good on Will Alves after his little kick on Tuesday?Yeah, he was sore coming off the pitch, and in some ways it was probably needed in that it was his first real whack on the injury, and to know that you can have that and come through it is obviously a positive sign.So, yeah, no ill effects from that. Obviously, he was recovering with the recovery group today…the lads that played the game on Tuesday are still sort of half-training, half-recovering. But no, he came through OK as well.Radinio BalkerSC: Admittedly, as you say, you’ve conceded some goals you wouldn’t have liked to concede recently. On the whole though, when you look at the xG, when you look at the number of goals conceded, it has been better over the past few weeks since this change of shape. Do you feel like this system suits you as a defence?If you look at the numbers, yes. I think because of the way we play, it’s taken away sometimes a little bit of the attacking. But, I mean, we’ve played the same way on Tuesday [against Rotherham], and it’s looked very attacking as well. So it’s difficult to say, but you would say yes, if you look at the stats, and it feels like that as well.Even against Stockport, we didn’t play well, we were defending a lot, but I feel like we didn’t really give up many chances against them. Yeah, they had some shots, they had some pressure on us, for sure, but I think that security in the back with an extra man saves us those big, big chances that we that other teams create against us. So you could say defensively, it actually works really well, yeah.SC: Speaking to the manager, he seems to think the difference in those games, like Stockport or Bradford, or plenty of other games against the big teams…is it a matter of self-belief, as the manager seems to think? Do you think you and your teammates need to find that extra level in those big games?Well, that speaks for itself. I think if you look at the record we have against the top teams, it doesn’t look good. So you could say maybe we need to show some more balls, because what we have done before hasn’t worked either.So I wouldn’t say it’s self-belief, but I feel like in a game, you have moments where you’re under pressure, and then it’s easy to kick the ball away because you don’t want to concede. And that’s something that you need to — again, the same word I used before — balance. You need to balance it out.Yes, sometimes kick the ball out. Sometimes keep the ball away because you’re in a dangerous area. But sometimes, you need to have the confidence to keep it and play out of that pressure from the other team.So yeah, I can’t really answer the question, I can only speak for myself, and for myself, I don’t think it’s a lack of confidence. It’s just knowing as a team what you need in that moment. I think that’s the best answer I can give. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

Below are selected highlights from Tuesday afternoon’s press conference. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed.Lee GrantChris Nee (We Are Terriers): Lee, we’ll start, if you don’t mind, with your reflections after Stockport, please.Yeah. So, difficult afternoon, difficult in many senses. Because not only do we not reach our level in terms of really going after the game and being successful in the things that we set out to do, but then having got the game to a stage where we, you know, look as though we’re coming away with a point and a clean sheet, we then, obviously, yeah, turn that into into no reward and zero points from the game. So, yeah, that’s tough to take, of course, but we know internally that we have to be better.And as it stood with the point and the clean sheet on offer, but 90+6 minutes or whatever it was, we still would have been wholly dissatisfied, I think, with how the game went.CN: Do you understand or even share the frustration of the supporters after a game like that?Without a doubt. Intrinsically, we understand it. I understand it. Share it, for sure. We’re living it. So we’re certainly, with regards to our level at the weekend, we’re not satisfied, and we certainly feel as though we’ve we’ve come up short, and I’ve come up short, in terms of the display that we put on show.CN: You’ve brought in a keeper and another keeper has gone in the other direction. Can I ask the thinking behind those two transactions?Pretty straightforward, in all honesty, in that we had to do what was right by Owen [Goodman] and of course, had to take into account Owen’s wishes and Crystal Palace’s wishes in the matter, and all of those things being considered, it was a very straightforward decision for all of us, and we did make that decision mutually, along with Owen and along with Crystal Palace.So, yeah, we came to the decision that that was best for all parties. And then, of course, finding the replacement and doing so in in good time was really important.CN: We saw Cameron [Humphreys] at the weekend. Do you expect to sort of see him in that deeper role more often, or is it a versatile player that you’ve brought in?Very much so, yeah, very much. So we can use Cammy in all of the positions centrally. My belief is that across the across the you know, five months or so that he’s going to be with us, we will get an opportunity to see Cam as a more aggressive central midfielder, as a deeper one, and perhaps at times, as a more attacking outlet for us. So yeah, we know he has that versatility and those attributes to his game, so we want to make sure we use them.CN: It’s clearly a blow to lose a player who was in the kind of form that Leo Castledine was in. Are you looking to bring in a pretty direct replacement for him, or is that somewhere where Will Alves and Zeppy Redmond can step in?Yeah, well, it’s difficult. I think it’s going to be difficult for us to replace Leo, that’s for sure. So Leo worked hard, and we worked really hard with Leo to get him into a position where we felt as though he could contribute significantly. And he was doing that. We found the right slot for him, and he was really consistent with his level.So yeah, that’s a blow that’s tough to take for all of us. We also feel as though we’ve got one or two that are ready to step up. So of course, they have to do that, and we want to help them to do that.So yeah, that’ll be the goal. Of course, if we have an opportunity to find another Leo Castledine, nobody’s going to turn their nose up at that. But as I said, I think that’s going to be very, very difficult.CN: Is the Vertu Trophy game a chance to maybe bring a few of those players back in and give them some minutes?Yeah, quite possibly so. We’ve got one or two now that are pushing hard to be back available and around it. You know, Mickel Miller, Marcus McGuane, Will Alves, people like those guys that we’ve not seen a great deal of recently, and then one or two that, you know would have liked to have had more minutes than perhaps they’ve had more recently, again, will get an opportunity.But as we’ve said before every single game, it’s a really important competition to us. So you know, we’ll pick a side that we feel as though can go out there and get the right result for us.CN: What’s the status of Alfie May at the moment?Yeah, look Alfie, it was disappointing one, I think for all of us concerned. We selected Alfie to play at the weekend. He didn’t feel as though he was able to do that, so yeah, we have to see if he’s if he makes the cup for for Tuesday. My hope is that it settles quickly and we can have him back around it.CN: Do you have a time frame on Sean Roughan as well?Yeah. Sean Roughan, I think we said at the time, initially four to six weeks, that hasn’t changed. So he’s progressing along nicely.Lynden GoochCN: Why do you think the the team falls a bit short against teams around you?I’m not too sure. Obviously, the results are there to see against the top sides. And unfortunately, for whatever reason, we haven’t managed to get those results and performances that we want.But yeah, look, I think if we finish the game 0-0 you go, ‘It’s a good point, we rolled our sleeves up and and dug in,’ which we did. And unfortunately, the last kick the game didn’t go our way. And that’s really disappointing.But like I say, we’ve been on a really good run. It doesn’t need to be doom and gloom. We need to get back to what we’ve done well over the last month or so to get back to those results.CN: One thing that will help that is avoiding conceding late goals. As you say, 0-0 would have been a very respectable outcome on Saturday. Is that down to concentration over the last couple of games?Maybe, yeah, you could put it that way, I think the goal on Saturday was obviously disappointing, and we should have defended it better. We know that. So that’s that’s on us to to see the game out and and obviously against Exeter as well, in the closing stages.So look, we, we are under no illusions how disappointing that is and how disappointing that is as a football club, as the fans would be disappointed, we’re just as much as disappointed.And yeah, look, we want to obviously stop that routine happening and but we can’t whinge about it or get down about it. We have to be grown men and face it and try and do better. CN: What is the mood like at the moment? Obviously, the results were fine for a while and then slightly disappointing on Saturday. But big games coming up, big month coming up, is there confidence and fire in the group?Yeah, of course, look, confidence is still high. We still believe we can beat anyone on our day and and we’re still in a really positive place in in the division, and there’s still a long, long way to go.When I got promoted at Sunderland, we were outside the play-off places at this stage. We fell down quite a bit and managed to get back in and go up through the play-offs. So there’s still so much to play for. It’s not over just because we got beat at the weekend.And look, we we want to go far in the Vertu Trophy as well because winning breeds confidence and and belief, and we want to go far in that tournament as well. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comHuddersfield Town’s unbeaten run ended at seven matches thanks to their first loss of 2026. It was a late goal that turned one point into none at Stockport County and Dominic Howson joins David Hartrick to carry out the postmortem.With the January transfer window now well underway, we look at a busy week of business that saw Town add Jak Alnwick and Cam…

Below are selected highlights from Wednesday morning’s press conference. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed.Louis Reynolds (BBC Radio Leeds): What can you learn from Exeter a few days on?Well, certainly we’ve got a way, I think, of making it easier for ourselves to take maximum points in that game, and that is by having more control and being the version of ourselves that we’ve shown many times this season, and being better with the football than what we were in the second half.And then, of course, there also comes a point where, when you get late in the game where we have to shut the door, and it has to be what it has to be, and the result has to stay as it is. Probably we didn’t quite change into that mindset, I don’t think, and again, I take my share of the responsibility in that as well.So again, myself, the group — we get to the bottom of that, we understand where we can all be better, and we look to apply those lessons.LR: It’s going to be a big month, isn’t it? I mean, it started with the big game away at Lincoln, and Stockport, Bradford, Luton, Peterborough who are in good form…how do you look ahead to the rest of this month?Just really excited. It’s a great month for us in terms of the sort of development we’ve had over the recent weeks and making sure we’ve fixed some of the things we wanted to fix. The group have done great on that, and I’m so pleased with how they’ve taken a lot of that information on and applied it in-game, so I’m excited to see that being really challenged now in big games away from home on a couple of occasions.LR: It’s January, there will be questions about the transfer window. Is there any update you can tell us in terms of incomings? Is there anything going on behind the scenes at all?Nothing quite yet, no. We’re just monitoring everything right now. We’re in a situation where I think, if I’m being really honest, I don’t think the squad will look exactly the same at the end of January to how it looks right now today, and if I was also being really honest, could I predict who, what, where and when? The answer would be no. So it would really be pointless to me, for me to sit here and say this has happened, because there isn’t anything in the offing right now, at this moment in time.We’re aware that everybody wants to play, so that will throw up things naturally. Of course, we’re aware that we might be an attractive option for people as well, so that might throw things up. And we’re also aware that we’re striving really hard to get to where we want to go. So if we feel like there’s something that could help us, I’m certain we’ve got a motivated football club and owner that would push to try and give us that opportunity. So, yeah, we have to be ready to adapt and move and change as and when necessary.LR: Forgive the persistent question from myself and my colleagues, has anything changed regarding Leo [Castledine]?I forgive you, don’t worry!The answer is, all of that is external to my control, so I don’t put a great deal of stress or emotion into that. What I do put my stress and energy into is working with everybody, of course Leo included, helping him, making sure that he retains his importance to the team, and that’s how I’ll continue to play it.LR: What about Owen [Goodman]’s situation? Because, obviously, you’ve been a goalkeeper yourself. He’s come here to play. Some people are talking, maybe he could return to Crystal Palace. What’s your view on that?Yeah, it’s going to be tough. I think it’s tough for Owen, because I love him and brought him in because our feeling is that he’s going to have a tremendous career and hope, of course, as well, that he’ll be incredibly important for what we’re trying to do this year now.Right now, I’ve got to say, I’ve been delighted with Lee [Nicholls], delighted, so that’s going to put Owen in a situation where he’s going to be frustrated and perhaps looking at ‘how can I affect my situation?’ — because you have to be selfish about your own career and situation. Me and Owen are in constant conversation, in all honesty, on how that looks and how that will play out, and I’ve got to be fair to Owen, and I’ve also got to be right by what’s right for us as a football club.So again, it probably falls into that category of a situation that I’m alive to and ready to react if and when necessary.RL: Team news wise, is everyone who was involved in Exeter fit to play? Can you welcome anyone back for the weekend?Yeah, it’s going to be difficult for Sean Roughan.Other than that, I think we’re in a good place. We’re pushing with one or two as well. So we’re pushing with Mickel Miller, Marcus McGuane, we’re pushing with Josh Feeney, so obviously that was pleasing. So yeah, we’re in a decent place.Steven Chicken (We Are Terriers): Is Joe Low any closer?Yeah, that’ll be right to the wire, I think, that one.SC: We’ve not seen Joe Taylor or Ruben Roosken in your squad recently. What do they need to do to get back into your thoughts at the moment?Ruben is another one having really good conversations — open, honest — and I think you’ve seen how much Ruben’s played for me across the course of this season. As with everybody, it’s a fight and a scrap, and there’s no guarantees.But for everybody that shows great application and work and dedication and wants to do the things that we think will help him and the team, whoever that may be, there’s always opportunity. So for Ruben, no stress, he’s played a lot and will continue to play.For Joe, it can be frustrating if you’ve got that chain above you of one, two and three and all playing in that position, and perhaps one or two playing really well in that position. So it can be really frustrating. Joe, again, has contributed significantly over the course of the first six months while I’ve been at the football club.I’m also aware that every situation is different, every context is different. So again, despite my own wishes, I have to be alive and fair and across what might be different from one individual to the next.Joe’s situation might be different to Ruben’s, for example, and again, we have to treat them specifically. We have to treat them like: ‘right, OK, what’s right for Joe in this moment’, and what’s right for Joe from all angles — for the football club, for his development, for us trying to achieve our goals.We have to weigh all those things up, and we will continue to do that across the course of January. I don’t have any worries about Joe and him being in a position to contribute, I really don’t, because he’s shown us that he can.SC: Is there a possibility he (Taylor) might leave during this transfer window?I don’t know. I don’t know. I really don’t.Like I said, I think there’s probably several obvious ones where you can look at and say ‘well, if he’s not playing, I don’t know how that situation continues to be as it is’.So that’s an obvious one, and there’s maybe one or two others like that, where you can look at and go, ‘well, that probably doesn’t work for the club or the player or the manager or anybody if that one’s not not going in the right direction’.So again, I’ll try to look at all of those ones individually as and when. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comHuddersfield Town’s unbeaten streak now stands at seven games, but not everybody is entirely happy that the past two games both ended in stalemates.The reaction to the Lincoln game was decidedly mixed depending on who you asked, while everyone was left irritated by the Terriers dropping points late on against Exeter — including Lee Grant.So where do we …

Below are selected highlights from Wednesday morning’s press conference. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed.Lee GrantBBC Radio Leeds: I’ll just start with the team news and on the injury situation with Joe Low first?We’re going to give Joe as much time as we can, I think that’s probably what we will do. Obviously, we haven’t got a great deal of time between games, but in terms of making sure we give Joe every chance possible, we’re going to do that. That’s where we’re at with Joe.Everybody else is as it was really.The same as everybody else at this stage of the season, with games thick and fast, we have a few tired bodies, of course, but we’ve just got to make sure we we get the training right and recovery right between games. But yeah, we’re OK.RL: What’s the nature of Joe’s injury?Fatigue, the same as everybody else, and he was tight leading into the game. So like I say, we’ve got to make smart decisions, and we got to see where we’re at with him. We’ve also got to try and take longer term view, as we do with everybody, as well as looking at the here and now. But the here and now for us is really important, so we’ve got to weight all those factors in.RL: Is there any you’re expecting to be back in the next month or so?I’d be disappointed if we don’t have within the next four weeks Mickel Miller fit, Marcus McGuane fit.I’ve said previously, Jack Whatmough’s situation is going to take him longer. It’s been a really challenging period for Jack, so we’re not expecting him back in the next few weeks. Josh Feeney, we should have available to us within the next week to ten days.So we’re heading in the right direction on a few. We’d like to have Herbie Kane ready within the four week period as well.So yeah, there’s a few pushing so we’re we’re doing okay, and there’s a few moving in the right direction.RL: The January transfer window is upon us, or just about upon us as well — are you expecting a busy month?I don’t know it’s probably the best answer, not that I don’t have an idea of what I want to do or where I want it to get to and how I want it to look at the end — I have a very clear idea of that.Myself, Chris [Markham] and Jake [Edwards], we’ve been in conversations for a good while now around how we would like that to play out.But of course, some of it is out of our control, and not all of it is straightforward. That’s probably the two bits I’m being realistic about. So I expect the squad to look slightly different by the time we get to the end of January , but not by loads.So that’s really where I’m at with it. I think there’s room for us to adapt — but I have to say, I’m just as excited about having the boys fit as I am about anything else. So my focus right now really is on everybody that we have in the building, and I’ve been really clear about since the day the window shut in the summer.Everybody that we had in the building is everybody that we wanted in the building. And my focus really is on those, those boys, and our opportunity to keep working and keep moving in the right direction.RL: So as you’re aware, are there any talks ongoing currently?No, no.RL: Outgoings-wise as well, do you expect any activity in that regard?I think we have to be open to it. So that’s that’s where I’m at, and I think we have to be open to it. We have to be open to the fact that with a squad the size that we have, if players aren’t getting the minutes that they want, we’ve got to 1) respect their wishes, and 2) also help those players continue their development, and that is one of the reasons that I’m here, which is to help players develop and be better for the football club.Now, not everyone is going to get the opportunity to do that here for us this season. So as we have done with young Tom Iorpenda…Tom’s best opportunity this year is to be elsewhere (on loan at Notts County), getting loads of minutes and helping his development for the football club and for him personally.So yeah, we have to look at that, and that’s a case by case basis.RL: Leo Castledine is still a player that’s in the forefront of a lot of people’s minds, and the situation regarding him, and speculation surrounding what Chelsea might want to do with him…have you had any more indication as to what the state of play is?No, none, none. And as I said before, I’m really relaxed about that. Anything that’s external to my control, I don’t spend any time worrying about.So it’s all very, very clear for me: Leo is with us, getting exactly what we set out to do, and he set out to do, at the start of the season. So there isn’t even a conversation to be had on that one.Is there a level of it? You’d rather know? Earlier than rather later, though, when it comes to him.… We Are Terriers: As much as you can see the performances have been a lot better and the commitment has been a lot better the past few games, it also looks like the players are enjoying their football a lot more the past few games. Obviously that’s easier when you’re winning but is it important to have in the squad?Yeah, and not just [celebrating goals]. I think if you’re watching really closely, you’re seeing players celebrate blocks. You’re seeing Lee Nicholls put demand on people and give them the respect that’s due when they do the right things in front of him.So all of those bits, they add up, they add up, and they’re adding up right now to what we’ve seen in the past three games for us in particular, which has been really good on both ends of the pitch. There’s a a real hunger and determination to protect and be there for each other on both sides of the coin again, so we’ve got to continue to see that, and that will be really tested up against Lincoln on New Year’s Day. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comHuddersfield Town blew Port Vale away before passing an endurance test against Northampton. Are they now more ready for the bigger challenges ahead in January?There’s yet more love for Bojan Radulovic in particular, obviously, and we discuss how Town could possibly replaced Leo Castledine’s recent contribution if Chelsea decide to move him up a level in…

Below are selected highlights from Tuesday morning’s press conference. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed.Lee GrantKatherine Hannah (BBC Radio Leeds): Really important to get the win at Rotherham Lee — now, equally, I guess, important to be able to follow that up with two games back at the Accu Stadium?Yeah, absolutely. We have to keep searching for our consistency and our level more often, and with such a strong display at the weekend, we want to make sure we back that up going into the next couple for sure.KH: What did you particularly enjoy about the performance at Rotherham that you want to see replicated again against Port Vale?Attention to detail around the defensive habits. We were there for each other, very often, good cover. The line work was excellent. Habits around our individual defending was really good. And I like the feel and the energy that I got from the group in terms of their desire to do all the horrible bits as well.KH: And of course, that’s something that you’ve been calling from from day one. What do you think it was that inspired that away at Rotherham, that perhaps they didn’t deliver for you in previous games?Well, certainly from the group, there’s a hunger and a desire every week. I think probably they’re at the point as a group where they really are putting a lot of demand on themselves as well, and that’s important. So as much as I can be demanding and challenging and ask a lot from them, it has to, once they cross the line, come from a real internal desire, individually, but most importantly collectively, for the group to strive for their for their maximum. I could see lots of that throughout the week, and I think I said it after the game, I was really pleased with how that translated into their work at the weekend.… KH: There’s a lot of talk inevitably about the current form of Leo Castledine being recognised as the talent that he is…inevitably that comes with the fear that, ‘oh no, are Chelsea going to recall him, or is somebody else going to put a bid in to try and take him on a permanent basis?’. Where are you at with Leo going forwards?I’m not anywhere with Leo, apart from I like having Leo here. I love selecting him when he’s fit and long may that continue.KH: Do you have to plan for the possibility that he might move elsewhere in January?No, no, that will be outside of our control if that happens.I would very much hope that Leo would see the value in everything we’re giving him here, in terms of the coaching, the opportunity, and the experience he’s having with us as a football club. So yeah, I feel pretty secure in that.Of course, like I say, everything outside of that is external to my control. So, you know, very difficult for me to have any impact on it.… KH: You may be aware of a video that’s been doing the rounds on social media over the last 24 hours. Marcus Harness and Herbie Kane seem to have some kind of interaction — I don’t know who with, whether it was a fan of Huddersfield or someone else — but what’s gone on there? Are you in a position to tell us any more about that? No, I’m not.KH: Not aware or not able to expand on it?No, I’m absolutely aware, of course.I speak with my players a lot, and conversations I have with the players are detailed, of course, and everything that happens that can affect the group, externally, internally, I always make sure that that’s dealt with very quickly, and those conversations always stay where they where they happen, so that will continue to be the case.We deal with all of that stuff in-house, and the players know my feelings, and the group know my feelings.KH: I appreciate player confidentiality and those conversations remain private, absolutely understandably. Bigger picture, is this the difficulties of doing a high-profile job that and everybody having camera phones these days…how hard is it as a professional footballer to have a life outside of football and for situations like this sometimes to occur?Yeah, I think, Katherine, you’re talking about something that’s wider than like socially now, for young people in general, it’s part of the landscape we live in.Whether you are a high profile athlete, whether you are John from around the corner, there’s always somebody ready and willing to make your life difficult and do that via any means necessary, and obviously, there’s quite a few avenues nowadays, as you mentioned there, with camera phones and photos and the social networks that are readily available to everybody.So yeah, things can escalate to points where perhaps they wouldn’t have done in the past, or perhaps become consumable in terms of things end up in in the spotlight when perhaps they wouldn’t have done [previously].That’s where that’s where the world is, and I think everybody has a responsibility to be able to understand that landscape and to work with within and around it, whatever constraints there are, and everybody has those responsibilities individually, like I say. With regards to our group, they will know my feelings on it really clearly, and they’re all aware of the responsibilities they have as custodians of our principles and everything that the football club stands for. So as I said, that’s all really, really clear in-house, and we’ve got to make sure that we are upholding all of those values and principles as much as we can every single day, regardless of on duty, off duty. That’s all really important for me.… Steven Chicken (We Are Terriers): How’s Leo doing after his his little kick on Saturday?It’s a bit of a difficult one in terms of where he gets it, so they’re always sore, but he’s going to be OK. That’s my feeling right now as we stand.Obviously, we’ve got a couple of days to see how that progresses, but it’s a sore one top of the foot, but nothing at this point where I’ll be really unduly concerned. My hope is that the next couple of days he manages to do the work that’s needed to keep himself in and around it.SC: Are there any other injury updates you can give us either way?We have Will Alves still pushing and working his way back in. Obviously we have some quite strict guidelines from his parent club (Leicester) in terms of how much and how soon we can push so we’ve got to make sure we tick those off.Because of the nature of the injury, it’s a bone injury that really, there is just a certain amount of time for us all to be really certain about that healing process being concluded. So we’re getting close to the end of that block now. These three days of work were really good for Will and after the next couple we should have him close getting him ready for selection.Zeppi [Redmond] is working his way back really well in terms of his fitness. He’s got a bit to do still, but he’s pushing, and he’s training hard, and again, these three days will be important for him.Other than that, Mickel Miller and Marcus McGuane are on the grass at the moment, so that’ll be a nice surprise, I think, for everybody today to have them back in and around it — but they’re right at the beginning of their sort of on-grass and with-team exposure, so we’ve still got a bit to go with them.Bojan RadulovicKH: Obviously, great assist and a really nice goal for you against Rotherham at the weekend. How pleased were you with your performance?Yeah, of course. So glad about the about the performance, not only mine, I think from the whole team, we have shown character. We have shown a lot of things that we are missing, probably, the last few games where we know getting that that win or the performance we we wanted. And I think this game sums everything up. And at the end, of course, we we get good result in a tough, tough game.KH: In terms of those couple of things that were perhaps missing in previous performances. Then can you give me a couple of examples of what you mean?Probably more, I would say, not only defensively, but also in the last third of the pitch. In this game, we were able to score three goals. Of course, we didn’t probably create a lot from from open play or playing the ball, but it was more like playing a simple and direct and of course, yeah, we could have scored probably one or two more goals.But also, I would say defensively, we look much better than the other games, a bit more solid. But yeah, of course, that kind of games, it gives you that mentality that you have to play if you want to get the win on this kind of of of pitch surfaces, or these sorts of games where we needed to get that win.So, yeah, the win was a positive one or for the team that is going to give us that energy and boost for for the upcoming games.KH: Obviously it’s a very busy time of year for you as footballers over the Christmas period, lots of games to contend with. But do you manage to enjoy a bit of Christmas spirit, a bit of Christmas downtime at all?Of course, we all want to to enjoy that, but we also know that we have to play, we have to still work, do our job. So yeah, it’s going to be a bit of both, but always with being smart.But yeah, it’s a nice time to spend with family and friends. Christmas Day, it’s going to be different this year again, because of course, you cannot do a lot of things, because the next day we play on the Boxing Day. So yeah, it’s going to still be special. But with being smart.KH: Have you got family, friends that you’d be able to spend time with, even for a short time on Christmas Day this year?Yeah, my family is coming from Spain, so we’ll be at home on the 25th here. So yeah, it’s going to be a bit busy! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comPlaying with a lot more conviction did wonders for Huddersfield Town in their 3-1 victory away at Rotherham.We talk about where the difference was made, how better defending helped Town look more incisive in attack, and why Dave in particular is actually slightly irritated by them being good across the board.Plus, with two games to talk about on each of…

Below are selected highlights from Thursday afternoon’s press conference ahead of Town facing Rotherham on Saturday afternoon. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed.Lee GrantKatherine Hannah (BBC Radio Leeds):to pick up on a couple of the things you talked about after the draw with Wigan. Yeah, one of them was talking, what about a bit of nervousness? And I wonder, how on earth do you start to address that? What can you do as a manager to stop that collective nervousness that you spoke about? You’ve got to be open as a group, that’s for sure, and you’ve got to acknowledge the things that impact the group’s demeanour, how they are. You’ve got to be up front with all those things, so you can’t shy away or shirk from whatever’s impacting the group, whether that be an internal or external source…you have to be able to front that up and acknowledge it before there’s any hope of getting to the other side of it.KH: So how do you affect that?It boils down to first and foremost, the work, and then beyond that, anything else really is just words. So as much as we can acknowledge and as much as we can try to address the things that we think can impact positively or negatively, you have to be able to try and function and work within whatever context or dynamic you’re in. So that has to be the focus.So as much as we can, we remove fog and we give clarity to the group and allow them to focus on their jobs specifically, which gives them the best chance of being able to perform them to the highest level. KH: In terms of that clarity, how do you ensure that it isn’t over complicated? Obviously, they’re intelligent human beings, but sometimes do you just have to go, right, ‘do this, don’t do that’, make it that simple?In some cases, yeah. In some cases you can be very prescriptive about the things you’re looking for, and you can be very prescriptive about the things that you really don’t want to see.So absolutely, that’s formed part of the work we’ve done this week, as it does every week. We always discuss the things and the elements which we want to see, and a lot of that will centre around our principles, and when we’ve been effective, how does it look and how does it feel?I’m really trying to help the help the lads feel the things that they feel when they’re playing well, and recreate the things when it’s looked how we want it to look, and it how it’s felt how they want it to feel. So we spent a lot of time this week making sure it’s that’s been the focus.… Steven Chicken (We Are Terriers): You said, you said, last week, you look back at all the goals you conceded this season. I did the same thing yesterday, and the most common factors, to my eye, seem to be less tactical — it’s more about soft defending — lack of conviction on 50/50s — or playing players switching off of their marking. Does that match your analysis?Yeah, it’s pretty good analysis, mate. I mean, it was really hard to to pinpoint big frailties in structure and shambolic moments of of shape and organisation. It was very much as you said, lots of errors, lots of things that felt preventable in that in the moment. I think some of our recent goals against very much fell into that column.So yeah, we have to be we have to be more resolute, I think, with some of our individual defending and the accountability has to be really high, and concentration has to be really high. And I think we’ve we’ve shown we can do that. So we’ve got to find that level, collectively and individually.SC: With that being the case, is it just part of the manager’s job that you’re the one that ends up taking the flak for it from the fans, or do you see it as part of your job to identify why that’s happening in the players’ minds and and put it right?Yeah, only the second part of that question is relevant — as in, yeah, that’s my job. That’s my job.It’s like, right, if that’s happening, what’s it a symptom of? Is it a symptom of that individual’s psychology? Is it a symptom of a group psychology? Is there a wider issue here? Is there something we’re doing in terms of preparation that’s allowing players to switch off in moments?So we look at all of it and we assess all of that, and take all those things into consideration before we just point a finger and hang somebody out to dry. So we try very much to help the players work through these issues.Of course, we have to highlight things. Of course, players have to understand when there needs to be accountability and responsibility taken, of course.So yeah, it’s all of that. It’s making sure that we, we put the working on the training ground and in the classroom to help the players.SC: Is there any injury news for this weekend?Yeah, we lost Josh Feeney prior to the last fixture with a groin injury. So yeah, that was a real shame for Josh. There’s a bit of a window, so it’s not perfectly clear whether that’s going to be a three week injury or or the upper scale around a five week injury — he’s already 10 days into that.Now, I think he’s progressing really well. He spent the first week or so back with Aston Villa and he was back with us today, so we’ll keep an eye on that and see how he progresses. But like I say, there’s a bit of a window to see how long that ones going to be.SC: Was that the one in first half against Northampton?That one, yeah. And I mean, look, Josh is such a great kid. You ask him every 10 minutes, we’re asking him how that feels, and is he okay? And he’s just constantly giving you a thumbs up, and he’s not looking for a way out, which is obviously credit to him. And thankfully, he didn’t make the injury any worse. But, yeah, it was a nasty action which overstretched his groin.SC: There was no Joe Taylor on Saturday either. Was that just a selection decision?Yeah, just a selection decision. SC: Is there any issue with Joe, or is it just that you had two strikers on plus one on the bench, tactical?Yeah, yeah, just that.SC: And where are we with players coming — Jack Whatmough, Marcus McGuane? Jack Whatmough is not a good cycle of not being able to overcome a certain stage of his recovery, and he’s hit the ceiling on that a few times, and has had to step back from his from his last phase.We seem to have hit the same hurdle again, where Jack gets to the right up to the last week, to four or five days away from being back with me and training, and he hits a similar hurdle. So yeah, not clear with Jack at all in terms of where he’s at, and not likely to be back training with me anytime soon unfortunately.Marcus is slightly different in that we are hoping to have Marcus McGuane back with us in the next couple of weeks. So that’s that’s more positive, but that’s again, been a hell of a lot longer than Marcus or I or anybody would have predicted or wanted, so that’s been a huge frustration. But, yeah, we’re getting closer on on that one.SC: I appreciate it’s probably been the last thing on your mind this week, but we are a couple of weeks away from the January transfer window. Are you able to tell us anything about the club’s intentions moving towards that?Just that we’re in dialogue all of the time, and that dialogue has been ongoing, obviously, for the last couple of months, and will continue to be the same over the next few weeks, heading into what’s going to be an important phase for the football club.It’s that Chris [Markham] now is is on hand to share some of the burden on that and help the club make some really, really good decisions, hopefully, moving forward. So, yeah, nothing to report other than that.Leo CastledineKH: You are top scorer at the moment. Is that a target you set for yourself?Yeah, definitely. I’ve always loved scoring, it’s the best thing in football apart from winning, you know. When I came here, I definitely it was in one of my aims to try to get up as high as possible.KH: As you say, winning is the most important thing. You’ve had these fantastic moments, but has that been slightly tempered by the fact that the overall result hasn’t necessarily come with it at the moment?Yeah, of course. You know, it is tough at times. Like I said, I love scoring and I love helping the team, so it is difficult when, when I try and get myself happy about those things, and results don’t quite go our way. It’s just about finding the balance really.KH: Can you put your finger on why things aren’t clicking at the moment?I think that’s the problem, I don’t think we can really.I think we’re doing the right things, we’re going through the right processes, training every day is good, even preparation going into games is good. I think it’s just…we can’t quite put our finger on on what it is this going wrong in the games.KH: That must be frustrating.Yeah, of course, especially as an attacking player, it is difficult, because I feel like at times we can be providing goals, but at the moment, it’s just we’re letting in too many, that’s our problem. So yeah, it can be frustrating.But then at the same time, we take that on as a team. We don’t just take that on as attack and defence. It starts from the top and then finishes at the end, so it’s a whole team thing.KH: You can’t fail to notice there is a bit of despondency at the moment amongst the fanbase. I think it’s just one of those things, isn’t it? You kind of feel like it’s back on track and then it’s two steps forward, one step back.Yeah, and look, that’s understandable. We get it, we get how that’s happening. The only thing we can say is to just stick with us. We know things aren’t perfect right now, but they never are in football. We know that the fans deserve more, so we can understand the frustration. It’s just sticking with us and and trusting that we’ll get it right.KH: Town fans have never been backwards in coming forwards, and the choice of substitutions with you and Alfie being brought off against Wigan, it can’t escape your notice there were boos at that decision. What’s going through your mind as you walking off the pitch, and you hear that?I don’t know, it’s difficult, you know. Obviously, as a player, you never want to come off. I’d play 100 minutes if I could, but at the same time, you have to respect the gaffer‘s decision. Maybe he sees things during the games that we don’t see. I’m never going to be one to start kicking off or whatever. I just have to trust the gaffer.KH: Something that he touched on Lee Grant in his post match interview was he thought there was sort of a nervousness in that second half against Wigan. Is that something that you’re conscious of collectively and is it perhaps down to pressure of expectation?Maybe, I’m not sure. I wouldn’t say so. I wouldn’t say nervous. Perhaps I’d say…we were leading, and sometimes things can get get away from us. I think definitely after the goal, it becomes tough, because it’s more of a frustration, I’d say, than than being nervous, where we know we’re the better side, and we know we’re what we’re capable of doing.So I think conceding those sorts of goals is what’s frustrating, and then yeah, maybe that nervous side sort of comes out towards the end of the game, where we need to find a goal and we need to do something, and especially like not to concede another…don’t lose the game, you know? So, yeah, I think that’s where it could come from.KH: Something that’s occasionally levelled at Lee Grant is, is he over-complicating it? Are the players going out with too much information? What would you say to that?No, I wouldn’t say that’s the case at all. Really, I’d say we’re all very on board with what we’re meant to be doing.I wouldn’t say we’re all going out there with with loads of mixed messages and different signals and not not knowing what to do. We all know what the plan is and what the script is. I think it’s just not working as a as a collective right now, where we’re causing our own problems a bit too much at sometimes in games.I don’t think the problem is us over-playing or whatever, because that’s how we play, that’s how we want to play, and that’s how we’ll continue to play. We’re not a team that’s ever going to just rock up and start booming it along down the pitch, because we’re not that kind of side, and I don’t think we want to change the aspect of our game. It’s just about keeping those fundamentals of going out and doing what we’re setting out to do, but then also not making the silly errors that we have been doing, and that’s really what’s been costing us the games.… SC: I’ve looked through all of the goals you’ve conceded, and I appreciate that it’s not really your department, so apologies for putting you on the spot, because I feel like you’ve been doing your bit. But a lot of the goals, as you’ve touched on it, come from moments of inattention. It doesn’t feel like a tactical thing where you’re over committing or putting too many players forward. Is that fair to say?No, yeah, exactly, and I think we all know that, which is why I think it’s tough to put all the all the blame straight away on the gaffer, because I think at times we know that a lot of the time it has come from us, from lapses in concentration and errors, which we will fix.I know it’s hard for the fans to hear that we keep keep saying ‘it’s going to come, it’s going to come’, but that’s why I think we’re so positive that it will because, it’s not like there’s massive, massive flaws in our games we have to fix. These things are minor details, and I know it’s happening quite a lot and pretty consistently, but those aren’t things that are impossible to get right, so it will come. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comHuddersfield Town fans are not happy with how this season is going at all — and they are right not to be. But where does that leave Lee Grant after the boos and jeers rang down from the stands following Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Wigan?This week’s episode of the We Are Terriers podcast tries to answer that question. Is there any way back for the manager n…

Below are selected highlights from Thursday afternoon’s press conference ahead of Town facing Wigan on Saturday lunchtime. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed.Lee GrantYour task was not made easier by the sickness bug in the camp. How are the few that had it and has anybody else got it?They seem to be okay, and we’ve had a couple of them back on the grass today, which is good. Touch wood, it doesn’t appear like we’ve got anybody else under the weather right now. But obviously we know these things aren’t linear, necessarily, and that, you know, the next 24 hours might change that picture. So let’s just see how we go. We’ve got Lynden [Gooch] back on the grass today. Ruben [Roosken] is a little bit behind Lynden in terms of where they’re both at and their trajectories of when and how long they’ve been ill for, but both moving in the right direction.Same for Rads (Radinio Balker) — he had probably maybe managed to miss out on some of it, because he managed to get himself to the hotel with us and on the trip for Northampton, but certainly wasn’t feeling great and wasn’t involved in a great deal of the preparations because of how he felt, but h’s on the grass today. So again, a positive, And rest of the squad, how are you looking?Yeah, we’re OK. We’re all right. It’s nice, actually, to welcome back a couple of faces as well that we’ve not had with us because they’ve been back with their parent clubs in terms of taking care of their rehab. So Will Alves is back in the building today, which was really good, and Zeppi Redmond the same — back in the building.So it’s great to have them back in and around it, but of course, it’s going to be a little while before we see them back and on the pitch, available for squad selection, but it’s nice to have them back in and around the building.There was a lot of reaction this week, Lee after the draw against Northampton….Alfie May’s name comes up again. What does he need to do to be in contention from the start?Alfie’s doing everything he needs to do right now. The way Alfie’s trained over the last week or so, he’s been excellent, and of course…look, coming out of the team in the fashion he did (getting suspended), Alfie’s frustrated and all of us the same, missing an important player for three three games.That was not ideal, of course, but his response has been good in training. I’ve really enjoyed Alfie in the past week or so. Alfie’s doing the right things in terms of his attitude, in terms of his application, so I don’t have any worries about Alfie and his readiness to step in when required.Sometimes that could be late on in the game, kind of like with four minutes to go, and the criticism will be: ‘Lee, how would you affect a game in that in that time?’Well, it’s up for every player, regardless of whether they start the game, whether they finish the game, during the time they’re given, to give as much impact as they can. Now, I think for any player, having less minutes will always be frustrating. But of course, we always have to weigh up the opposition, the game dynamic, what we feel like we need on the pitch at that specific point in time, and that will always be the case. We’ll always make those calls in the moment with and in relation to who we’re playing and what’s happening at that specific time.Now, as I say, for Alfie specifically, would Alfie prefer more minutes to impact the game than 10 minutes? I’m pretty sure if you ask Alfie, the answer would be yes.Can my reflection be — especially if we don’t get the winner that I expect us to get — can my reflection be with Harry Hindsight, different? Of course, absolutely, absolutely, because we know the qualities Alfie May has.Now, it’s not just Alfie May. So whenever a result doesn’t end in the way that you want it to, or performance doesn’t quite get to the level that you want it to, of course, you have to reflect and always look and say, ‘well, perhaps if we we’ve made this adjustment, or perhaps if the adjustment that we made here at this specific time was was different, would that made a different impact?’ And the answer can be, well, possibly, maybe. But there’s always a reason and a justification for every decision we make in terms of substitution, on the pitch, off the pitch, start the game, finish the game. There’s always a really clear justification. We always make those justifications clear to the players as well.That will always be the case, and like I say, in terms of Alfie and his readiness and what he needs to do: keep working really hard, train the way he’s trained today, which is impeccable, and that leaves him in a great position of when that start comes around.Sean RoughanHave had to be patient for your chance in the side this season - frustrating?Yeah, it’s probably been the toughest part in my career — obviously, it’s still a short career — but it’s been very tough going in day in, day out, training and as a football you want to play games, and I’ve been able to do that over the last month.It’s been tough, but it was good to play against Lincoln, and then again on Tuesday, going forward and get the fitness back up.How do you how do you deal with that mentally if you are not in the side?Look, it’s tough, but you’ve got to look at the bigger picture. Obviously, the manager has a tough job, he has to pick 11 players, and I’m up against Ruben and Ruben has done well, so had to just bide my time a little bit.There’s days where you think you’re hard done by, but I think you’ve got to just remind yourself how lucky are in the position you’re in, because a lot of people would love to be in the position I am. So you’ve kind of just got to remind yourself and try and put a smile on your face and keep going, because there will be times when you’re out of team and times you’re going to be playing, so you’ve got to wait for your moment and jump on it when you can. How do you change what’s been happening, where you have been conceding quite a few goals? Just probably be more aggressive. I put it down to defending like your life depends on it. I think obviously you can’t stop some goals and some goals the opposition team score, sometimes you’ve just got to take your hat off to them.But I think we’ve just got to be more aggressive in and around our own box as a team, just blocking shots, everything that comes our way, that we’re trying to keep it out as much as we can, and we know deflections sometimes go in, but if you’re doing the best possible thing to stop the ball going in the net, then that’s all you can ask for.I think we just showed it against Lincoln when we kept a clean sheet, we showed it against Northampton. Obviously, they scored a decent enough goal, but we just got to probably take that stuff out of it, and just make it so that anything that comes into the box, it’s ours.We can do a lot in a lot of things better, but I thought there was a few things in there [against Northampton] that we can build on. Obviously, the goal we should do better — we defended well as a unit, but there’s a lapse in concentration for the goal, and or we had our chances to probably get the winner. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

Below are selected highlights from Monday morning’s press conference ahead of Town facing Northampton on Tuesday evening. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed.Lee GrantCan we just start with your team news? How is everyone who was involved in in Cardiff, and can you welcome anyone back for tomorrow? We’re OK. What I would say is that right now, we’re probably in the midst of a big bout of sickness going through the group. We had, obviously Lynden Gooch not able to travel with us and be with the team for the weekend against Cardiff — that was due to illness, and unfortunately, what we’re seeing is that now migrate throughout the rest of the squad. We’ve had two staff members unable to be with us for most of the week last week as well.So look, we’re going to be up against it in terms of the illness and the bug that’s traveling through the group, so we’ll have to really monitor that closely and be careful with how we travel down to Northampton.Is there anyone you can categorically rule out for tomorrow, or is it just let’s see where we’re at?What I would say probably on Lynden is it’s going to be really tough for him, having not eaten a great deal, not trained for a few days, still not feeling 100%, so it’s going to be difficult for Lynden, that’s for sure, for Tuesday.We’ve got a few to manage on that side of it.Between sickness bugs and injuries, it feels like you’ve had a lot thrown at you so far this season.Yeah, look, I can’t deny that we’ve had too many injuries, too many of our senior ones not available often enough, too large a portion of the group injured at one time. And then, of course, now to be hit with a bout of illness in the group is not ideal.But we can survive it. We’ve got a group that we believe in and trust, and we’ve shown that we can find a way through. So we will continue to do that.Just on Cam Ashia as well, he started against Wimbledon, and then he was back on the bench at the weekend. I know he’ll be in contention to start, but just on Cam, how impressed have you been with him this season? Cam’s doing great. He’s doing great. He’s obviously in the early stages of his own development, and what we know is that he can be exciting when given opportunity and time and space, and we want him to continue. I think the aggression he’s shown with his play and the energy and enthusiasm that he has when he comes on to the pitch — and now, we’ve obviously seen his first start — [he can] be really impressive, and even at points in the [Wimbledon] game where we were worried whether he was going to be able to continue, and if his energy or fitness levels might take their toll, but he managed to get through that game really well, and I was really pleased with him.We’ve obviously seen the other side, where it can be not as easy and be more difficult. We know that all of these games are going to be part of Cam’s development.So trying to manage that quite carefully, because what we want to do is keep pushing him, keep challenging him, keep giving him opportunity as well, importantly, because we do want to keep and have him around this first team squad more often than not. What he’s showed is he’s earned the right for that.So we’re really pleased with Cam. We obviously have to manage him carefully as well. When you say assessing where you’re at as a group, where do you feel you are at this stage of the season?The answer to that question is, if I’m being really blunt, we’re at probably where we should be at. (Ed: in the sense of ‘deserve to be at’)Now, what I mean by that, if it sounds a bit black and white — what I mean by that is the league table, which in some respects I try not to pay too much attention to. But it also gives us a good guide as to where we sit, and the balance of this division, what’s been successful in the league, and how we fared against opposition, above and below and around.I’m trying to take into context and into account all of those things right now, because we’re beyond the stage of 10 games, where we’re learning a lot about the group, and we’re trying to profile everybody correctly and understand who’s whose strengths are where. We’re at a point where we’re over a third in, and before you know it, we’ll blink and we’ll be halfway.We have to be really clear about what it is that’s going to help us achieve our goals this year, and I’ve got to be really crystal clear on that, because I’m certainly not willing to let this drift into sixth, seventh, eighth, fifth in the division if my belief is that we can be better. I don’t want to finish fifth in this division. I don’t want to be in and around sixth and fourth and fifth and seventh. I want us to be where I think we can be, what we’ve shown at periods and at points this year, which is really competing in the top four, challenging, pushing, establishing ourselves as a as a dominant force at the top end of this division.That’s my belief, and I want us to get there sooner rather than later. As I say, with halfway rapidly approaching, these are the things that are on my mind currently. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.weareterriers.comHuddersfield Town are through to the next round of the Vertu Trophy thanks to a 2-0 victory over Lincoln, but it was an all-too familiar story in the league as Lee Grant’s side fell to a 3-2 defeat away to Cardiff.Just why can’t Town get the job done against top half sides this season? Did the manager’s team selection make things easier than they should…

Below are selected highlights from Thursday afternoon’s press conference ahead of Town facing Cardiff on Saturday afternoon. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed.Lee GrantTeam news - any fresh concerns after after Tuesday?No, all unscathed. I haven’t got to say that very often, so that’s really pleasing.Antony Evans, is there a specific sort of time frame on on him after his scans last week?No, but I think good news in the sense that Antony won’t have to have his injury surgically repaired, so that will reduce the time frame. In terms of an exact date, it’s hard to pinpoint when he’ll be on the grass again, [but] it’s going to be a couple of months, I would imagine, before Antony is back with us.You said at the start the week that Herbie Kane is back running. How much of a milestone is that? And what’s his sort of time frame now looking like?Yeah, it’s really important. I suppose with Herbie, each milestones is important, but it’s one of these injuries where the fact he’s had to have the repair on the groin means that there is no speeding up of his recovery process. It really does need time to heal and everything to knit back together properly.So he’s in a really good place, and what I think we will see with Herbie, with the work that he’s doing in this period, is him hopefully be able to return back to himself quicker, because there’s always that period between being fit and then actually being match fit. So I think the work that he’s doing now putting him in a really good place.How pleased were you to be able to give David Kasumu 70 minutes on Tuesday?It’s really nice. I know he was itching for it as well, and I think probably an important part of that, maybe the most important part is his reaction in terms of his body and how he’s felt since. So that’s a big plus for us.Just what are your reflections on the Lincoln game a few days on?Similar to how I felt post game, really, which was that it was a really, really, incredibly pleasing performance from my perspective.I know the group would have been satisfied with how they went after the game and the result that they got from it, and the rewards.It was a really strong performance, and I think made even sweeter by the fact that Lincoln picked a side to win the game, and having spoken to their manager afterwards and listened to everything they said before it was a tie they wanted to win, and really felt they could. So for us to go there and be so dominant, and I think play in such a controlled fashion, was really pleasing.Personnel wise, how tough has that made your your selection going into this weekend, given that you made those nine changes?It’s ideal, I’ve got to say. We’ve been desperate for the group to be fuller and competitive, that’s what we wanted all along. We certainly had a really nice period at the start, maybe six weeks, seven weeks at the start of the season, where everybody was fit, everybody was pushing and fighting.We’re still not quite back to everybody, but what we have got, as we showed on Tuesday night, is real depth, and people champing at the bit to be back and involved. So that’s great.Does it make my job harder? Absolutely not. I think back to the period where we’re losing 13, 14 players…you can only dream of being in a situation where you can make nine changes for for the Lincoln game still be as strong as we were.So I’m not going to curse my luck on on that fact, I’m going to enjoy perhaps the little bit of tension or sweating that I might have to do this evening around picking the team and be thankful that we’re in a good place.Do you know just yet who your goalkeeper will be at Cardiff?It’s no different to any of the other positions. You’ve got 11 players on the pitch and I’ve got to pick and treat all positions with the same level of care and thought…who are we playing, how are we training, how is each individual psychologically and emotionally, what does the team need this week or next week? All of those things will come into consideration for all the positions.I make my decisions on my team, and the boys will know who’s going out to to start the game, on Friday morning. So that process won’t change.Ben WilesWhat’s the mood like in the place at the minute after Tuesday and some recent wins?Yeah, very good. Obviously, we’re frustrated ourselves because of how well we’re playing, and we’ve not always got the results we wanted. We’ve gone away from [last week’s games], and we’ve done a lot of classroom work in terms of watching back certain kind moves that other teams have done to us, and what we can do better in those. circumstances.But as a general feeling, it’s really good. We can take such positives from it, and that will just drive us in our performances. How much does Lee Grant enjoy coaching you in the classroom when you do have those sort of sessions? How analytical is he as a manager?I think they all are — all the staff and the analysis team do such a good job of painting really good pictures of us and a clear understanding, because on a Saturday, on a Tuesday, you don’t see it in the moment, and then it’s sometimes nice to sit back and look from afar and then think, yeah, that I could have done better there, or that’s not good enough.It’s just a reflection from us all, and I think that’s really important for us as a team. He’s as passionate as he is with us on the pitch, but it’s so important as well for us learning. We’re all still learning, you know, we all don’t know it still. So, yeah, it’s important to us. I think a lot of managers — these days, anyway — will do a lot of classroom work and will do a lot of analysis and reflection on the performances and the opposition teams. I just think it’s kind of a normal thing. But you do feel the passionate side from him a bit more.How big was it to get that clean sheet on Tuesday — it must have been huge for the group?Yeah, it’s another confidence booster we can take into into Saturday. We’ve leaked a few goals that we’re not happy with, so to come away with a clean sheet is putting things right. You can obviously see that things are changing. I know it’s only one game, but what we can take from it, what we’ve watched back, there’s people that are kind of clicking on to what we expect, and people are just putting the bodies on the line now. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.weareterriers.com/subscribe