Michael Duff urges Huddersfield to maintain home form

Posted Sunday, October 27, 2024 by PA

Huddersfield boss Michael Duff wants his side to continue their home winning streak after claiming a 2-0 victory over Exeter at the John Smith’s Stadium.

Defender Matty Pearson grabbed his third goal in six league games after 16 minutes and Ben Wiles sealed the win just after the hour mark.

The Terriers have now won their past four home games in all competitions, and Duff said: “I thought we were good value for the win.

“It was relatively comfortable against a good team – they were fifth or sixth in the league and they’ve just kept six clean sheets in a row.

“They’re a possession-based team and [Exeter’s] XG in the first half was zero.

“It’s very rare that happens, but that’s the second time it’s happened in a couple of weeks, the fact they’ve not even had a shot of any description in the first half.

“I thought we kept the ball well and showed patience. We didn’t blow them away, it wasn’t a rip-roaring performance, but I thought it was a comfortable win.

“We’ve talked about this mentality and the expectancy. We’ve had to go to the well on Tuesday night against Wrexham, but then it almost felt a little bit like when we beat Bolton [last month] and it was like, ‘oh, you’ll win the next two home games’ and bosh, we’ve lost them both.

“We’ve won quite a few home games in a row, now we want to keep doing it. We want it to become a fortress.”

Exeter boss Gary Caldwell was left frustrated that his side didn’t take advantage of two second-half chances that fell Josh Magennis’ way, with the striker heading straight at the goalkeeper and later lifting a presentable chance over the bar.

Caldwell said: “I feel like we have to do more when we get the ball and show more belief and more personality in these bigger stadiums if we want to win more consistently. The game was there for us, and we didn’t have the quality or the belief to go and win it.

“I think some players can be happy, but for us to come and win here, we need 16 players to play well. We made five substitutes, so we needed them to give us a bit of energy in that latter part of the game, which some of them did.

“From the off, I felt like we were a bit half-hearted in how we went about it. When we won the ball we didn’t look like we were playing with real authority, with speed, and because of that, we didn’t create much first half.

“Second half, we created two fantastic opportunities for Josh. He’s in the right positions and I’ll always back my strikers to keep getting in those positions, but we created the best chances of the game. That’s the frustrating aspect.”