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Monday 14 November 2011

England 1-0 Spain

A different topic here for Terrier Blog, but we're all England fans as well, and I felt that this result required special attention. On Saturday at Wembley, one of the worst England teams in recent memory recorded a 1-0 victory against the best team in the world. Before the game the talk from so-called pundits was of how England were going to keep the score down. However 90 plus minutes passed by, and Joe Harts net was not breached once by the Spanish masters. Up the other end however, Englands much maligned captain Frank Lampard headed the winner into an empty net.

Now it would be easy to over-react to this result, as I'm sure many in the media have already done in the past few days, but it is important to remember that we have just beaten the world champions and the hot favourites for the upcoming Euros. The style employed by England during the match was not easy on the eye, it was not satisfying or mind-blowing, but it was damned effective. Over recent years we have seen Barcelona, the only team in the world better than Spain, beaten very rarely. However whenever they have been beaten, the style of play pioneered by Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan has always been used, and so Capello opted for this style himself on Saturday.

A committed, well drilled, and technically solid display by the Three Lions, and perhaps most pleasing was a clean sheet. Fabregas can have his opinions about who deserved to win, and which side played the football. But lest we forget this has often been the view of Fabregas at Arsenal whenever a team didn't roll over and let them play. If this is the way we have to play to be successful against better teams, then I for one am fine with it. If we can play expansive football against lesser ranked teams and come away with a victory then fantastic, but against better and more technically gifted teams we will have to play like this, and it was very encouraging to see that we could play this way successfully.

This is by no means a marker for the England team, or a hint at their future fortunes at the European Championships, but it is a confidence booster, and gives us hope that if we play to our strengths against better teams, then we can get a result. South Africa 2010 we played the same players, in a rigid 4-4-2 formation and were humiliated in front of the world. Since this Capello has experimented, brought in new players and tried new tactics. If this continues in the European championships, then I am confident that we can progress to the latter stages of the tournament. I don't believe for one second that we will return from Poland and Ukraine with the trophy, but I think if Capello keeps it together we can progress to the latter stages.

42 Unbeaten but cup catastrophe

Hello and welcome back to the Terrier Blog. A few things have changed since the last post, courtesy of a friend with a penchant for design, so hopefully you enjoy the new interface.

Anyway, on to the most important thing of all football. Since the last blog we've equalled Nottingham Forests run of 42 league matches unbeaten (contrary to anything Adrian Durham says), and we've crashed and burned down in Wiltshire.

The record deserves special mention, to equal such a fantastic record is an achievement to be rightly proud of, 7 years ago when Arsenal matched Forests record they were justly praised, and I hope the same happens to us . In the future we will lose a league game, and I hope that the lads are applauded of the pitch afterwards in recognition of what they have done since Southampton. Now onto the game against Walsall, a false result in my opinion. We dominated the game and, had we taken our chances the scoreline would have been very different. However we didn't and we had to settle for a draw, but thankfully we managed to consolidate 2nd position. After the work against Walsall was over, the next task was a tricky looking FA Cup tie away to Swindon Town, for which Lee Clark decided to ring the changes.

Regardless of the changes made by Clark, the team that faced Swindon on Saturday should have been capable of recording a victory, and they didn't. A string of defensive lapses, a blunt attack and a lack of concentration cost us dearly. From the beginning of the second half it was clear to all to see Swindon's game plan, they intended to shut us out and hang out to what they'd got. We just needed a bit of creativity, a bit of imagination and invention, but instead we got misplaced passes and predictable attacks. It was no shock when the Robins broke away and added a third (offside) goal. Another lapse in concentration and a goalkeeping error led to the fourth, which slightly flattered them considering their second-half approach.

A humiliating defeat at the hands of a team the league below us, and a worrying insight into the strength of our squad. However, I don't feel that this is too much of a blow, we have been at the wrong end of embarrassing defeats before under Clark, but thankfully this was not in the league. This was in a cup which we had no chance of winning, and are not reliant upon for income. So yes it is disappointing to lose in this manner, but we have to get over it, regroup and come back stronger in the league. There will be no glamour trips to the Emirates, no poundings at Brunton Park and no 5-1's at Goodison park, but is that really so bad? 29 more cup finals to come, and hopefully they'll see us to where we all want to be, the championship.

Notts county, Charlton and Bournemouth are next up for the Terriers, and they will be massive games, if we can come through them with 7 points, I for one will be delighted, and I'm thoroughly confident that Lee Clark can steer us to the promised land. Until next time.....

Thursday 3 November 2011

Lee Clark stays-fact!!


After countless days of speculation, misleading tweets (some of them mine) and fretting over potential managers, Lee Clark has ended speculation and has committed himself to the club.
"I want to put an end to this speculation - I am not interested in the Leicester vacancy. All I am interested in is moving forward with the job at hand at Huddersfield Town.”
"My sole focus is on taking Huddersfield Town forward and achieving the goals that we are all so desperate to."
Very encouraging stuff coming from our Geordie manager there and it is nice to see that he has committed himself to the foreseeable future. However I think that there are several factors at play with this recent speculation. I’ll start from the beginning, Leicester’s interest, and the media. I think there would have been no interest for Clark had the unbeaten run been sullied with one defeat. Furthermore, the recent media coverage of this feat has raised the profile of Lee Clark and of the club, increasing speculation in the manager and players alike. Now to the media, and their consistent misinterpretation of the facts, I was sickened by the amount of times I saw Lee Clark portrayed as a ‘talented manager working on a shoe-string budget’. A talented manager he may be, but a shoe-string budget he certainly has not had. And there is the crux of the matter, had there been one loss in the past 41 league games, then I’m almost certain there would have been no interest in Clark, and that he would be portrayed rightly, as a decent manager on a learning curve.
However, I think I’ve been far too morbid and cynical in the earlier part of this blog, so I’ll switch to the positive. We’ve got a manager that has rejected the very appealing lure of championship football and a very healthy pay-packet. We’re second in the league, unbeaten since last year and look very well set indeed to gain promotion at the end of the season. After a fantastic end to last season (barring OT) and a good start this season, it is apparent that we’ve got the right man in charge, and a fantastic chance of achieving our goals this season. It’s fantastic to see that the speculation is over and hopefully it won’t have any effect on the players, and we can record a victory against Walsall this weekend.
As for Leicester it looks likely to be a two-horse race between Mark Hughes and Roy Keane, for their sake I hope they choose the former, although I doubt they’ll be entirely happy with anyone other than Martin O’Neill. So fingers crossed for 3 points at the weekend, ‘till next time...