Huddersfield Town 0-1 Norwich City
Martin Sykes, Chief Reporter
Twitter: @Gledholtsykes
There isn’t a bright side.
Town began yet another new plan to fumigate the stench of now long term failure with a predictable and expected defeat against a Norwich side rather more modest than anticipated.
Whether the visitors, rightly installed in pre season as favourites, were largely functional rather than exhilarating through rustiness or lack of familiarity or were subdued by Town’s hard work and organisation was just one of a string of unanswered, possibly unanswerable, questions in a game that largely plodded.
Corberán’s ideas and philosophies were evident in a worthy yet unsatisfying performance and the patience of supporters, now stretched gossamer thin where it isn’t already snapped, is being called upon again while the Spaniard recruits players to fully instil his values.
Encouragingly, debutant Pipa slotted in immediately with an eye catching introduction to a dysfunctional unit and added quality on the right of defence which has long been a massive problem. Composed and technically proficient, the youngster looked comfortable from the start and combined well with his new team mates at the back and going forward.
This barely translated in to goal scoring opportunities, though one exchange with Bacuna should perhaps have done.
With Grant at home, presumably trusting in the process which will release him from West Yorkshire, the funds which become available , hopefully, from his departure need to be invested in players able to fit just as effortlessly in to Corberán’s system. The fear is that the huge sums being offered by West Brom for an individual whose open play goals dried up along with his commitment after lockdown will evaporate if protracted negotiations end without movement.
With expectations extraordinarily low, people were expecting a battering; and their dark foreboding only heightened as the team was revealed even though the line up was arguably the strongest Corberán could name, give or take the odd wide man. That it didn’t transpire was barely a source of comfort but the effort and apparent collective spirit of a team perceived as hopelessly weak was mildly encouraging. Town continue to confuse and exasperate and with no effort being made to explain their plan, it is no wonder that the support is left befuddled.
A very early effort from far too far out by Diakhaby sailed way over the bar and, the Pipa/Bacuna interchange aside, constituted the greatest threat in a first half long on endeavour but short on real thrust. Norwich occasionally flattered to deceive but were mostly held in check and, to their credit, Town snuffed out a couple of dangerous looking breakaways with one in particular featuring some excellent defensive work by Diakhaby who tracked Pukki all the way back to nullify his presence.
A good first half from the universally maligned young Frenchman included a great tackle on the edge of Town’s box to thwart the Canaries and, overall, his touch was decent, he made himself available and played with responsibility. Now that the minimum bar has been set, let’s see if he can develop beyond the old joke about a dog walking on two legs.
At the back, Stearman was solid alongside Schindler while Toffolo shadowed man girl Cantwell to stifling effect. There were a few excellent cross field balls by the home side to release the lively Koroma but the midfield largely lacked creativity and failed to drive the team forward anywhere near enough. O’Brien should add that dimension when back from injury.
With Hamer having little to do as both sides struggled to penetrate, the best opportunity was hit straight at him by the otherwise impressive Hernandez while a free kick in a good position was woefully wasted by Pritchard, who disappointed yet again throughout. Late in the game, a darkly comic mix up between him and Bacuna wasted a corner opportunity; neither came out of the contest very well.
A stalemate became increasingly likely in a poor second half. Norwich were nearly gifted the opener when he failed to hold on to a less than challenging effort and was saved by Stearman clearing for a corner, while Koroma made space for himself with a decent piece of skill before firing wide. Little else occurred of note until late in the half when Stearman was clattered by Cantwell with his elbow.
The challenge was worthy of a red and left the veteran defender groggy. The referee, poor throughout and who had denied the visitors two good penalty shouts and missed a dangerous Hogg tackle which should also have seen red, waved a yellow to the Canary while Stearman received treatment off the pitch.
The Town coaching and medical staff will rue allowing him to return. Bacuna, lackadaisical for far too much of the game, played him in to a little trouble facing his own goal and a horribly under hit pass was seized upon by Pukki who evaded Schindler’s attempted block to feed Idah. Stearman had sprinted all the way back to try and prevent the goal but failed by a couple of feet.
It was cruel on the team and the distraught Stearman but when you are incapable of scoring, mistakes haunt you.
An expected defeat produced few answers to the plethora of questions swirling around the club, yet there were some signs of hope. Unfortunately, few, if any, of these are going to be much use without a goal threat.
We can only wait and see what solutions to the deep and ingrained problems will be applied by the club in the next few weeks. Until then, this team doesn’t look capable of winning games even against the most mundane of opposition, simply because of a lack of goals and opportunities.
Despite the pedigree of yesterday’s opponents, and the reasonable effort against them, yet another relegation battle seems inevitable and the few positives that can be taken from the game seem a little irrelevant right now. It was probably a good time to play Norwich, who will not be as one dimensional as the season matures, and what would’ve been a useful point disappeared.
