Hudson questions Huddersfield character after Luton loss

Posted Sunday, September 01, 2019 by PA

Huddersfield caretaker boss Mark Hudson blasted referee Andy Davies after his side’s winless start to the season continued following a 2-1 defeat at Luton.

Karlan Grant had put the visitors ahead two minutes into the second half at Kenilworth Road but they were pegged back by James Collins’ penalty 10 minutes later.

Andrew Shinnie then made it 2-1 after 66 minutes despite midfielder Jonathan Hogg being down with what looked like a head injury, with Davies not blowing to allow the physios on.

Hudson has now lost all three of his matches in charge since taking over from the sacked Jan Siewert, with his side sitting second from bottom in the Championship.

He said: “There are decisions that I totally disagree with today but there’s no point talking about them or the good bits we saw.

“Some of our leaders weren’t strong enough and until that changes we won’t win games.

“The ref stopped play for a first-half head injury and then he doesn’t for their goal, but we cannot just stop – we have to play to the whistle.

“We then let them dictate the play for a spell and we’ve got to be stronger. You have to show character.”

The first half saw Luton threaten an opener, Collins denied by on-loan Liverpool keeper Kamil Grabara, while Grant went close for the Terriers from Adam Diakhaby’s cross.

After the break, Huddersfield went in front when Terence Kongolo’s cross was tucked away by Grant at the far post.

Collins was then fouled by Christopher Schindler for a penalty he converted before Shinnie’s wonderful curling attempt from 22 yards beat Grabara.

Huddersfield might have equalised with substitute Steve Mounie denied by a brave stop from home keeper Simon Sluga.

Reflecting on three wins in a week, after Luton beat Barnsley and then Cardiff in the Carabao Cup, boss Graeme Jones said: “If you look round world football, three wins in seven days doesn’t happen very often, especially at this level.

“You have to be totally committed, totally focused on each game, which is really, really demanding.

“The most important thing for me is we played in three completely different styles in all three games and I said right at the beginning of my time here, we’d have to be adaptable and we were.

“Obviously we’ve played two teams this week as well, so we’ve been in a fortunate position that we could rotate and I think that paid dividends.

“Today was about substitutions and they showed character that I know is in the group and that mixture, with the supporters, it’s a two-way thing.

“I’m just really satisfied, as it’s very, very difficult to do, win three games in seven days.

“They [Huddersfield] didn’t give us the freedom we had last week [at Barnsley], they put an extra forward on the pitch instead of a midfield player, they changed their wingers, they swapped them over.

“The wingers had real pace, we had to contend with that, and then going 1-0 down, you need to see everybody’s response.

“I think everybody’s response was absolutely first class.”