We need to be a little more clinical – Huddersfield boss Michael Duff

Posted Sunday, August 25, 2024 by PA

Michael Duff wants Huddersfield to be more clinical but was pleased with what he saw in his side’s 1-0 victory over winless Shrewsbury.

West Ham loanee Callum Marshall scored the only goal of the game in the first half, with goalkeepers Lee Nicholls and Toby Savin both making saves from chances that should have been put away.

Duff said: “I was pleased with the performance. There was loads of good stuff – a bit sloppy at times, but we’re trying to change the mentality of the football club. We’re going from having 20 per cent possession at times last year.

“We had the ball, Shrewsbury sat in, and they’re the hardest games to win. There’s an expectation from the supporters that we’re going to rock up and win 4-0 – it never works like that.

“We could have been more clinical and put the game to bed, and there were a couple of sloppy moments, but people are going to make mistakes.

“I’d rather we try and play like that because if we boom it down to their centre-halves, they will just eat it up all day.

“We need to learn how to beat that low block and cut out the silly errors because their chances came from our mistakes rather than our good play. Lee’s made a couple of big saves when we needed him to.

“But we’ve had lots of good chances as well. We just need to be a little bit more clinical.”

Meanwhile, Shrewsbury boss Paul Hurst feels his side are on the right track given the odds against them in this encounter.

He said: “You’re never happy losing a game of football but I thought we performed well and there wasn’t much in the game.

“I thought Huddersfield looked like they had run out of ideas in general but admittedly they had got the all-important goal so were in front.

“A lot of what I watched in terms of putting a game plan together, nothing surprised us, and we negated a lot of what Huddersfield want to do and have done well to date.

“It’s frustrating to lose by a single goal. We’ve hit the crossbar and had another really good chance where their keeper has made a really good save.

“It’s one of those games where maybe they are happy but we were also happy. The lads stuck to what we asked them to do very well…we just didn’t quite get our rewards.

“We’re not going to feel sorry for ourselves, I’ve just said that to the players – that’s not going to get us anywhere. It was a game of moments and I think we could quite easily have come away with a draw – and on another day we might have nicked it.”