Huddersfield Town’s biggest issues laid out as Terriers must improve to progress

The Terriers ended the campaign in ninth having aimed to win promotion this season

Huddersfield Town are turning their attentions towards a third season in League One after missing out on promotion this term.

The Terriers ended the campaign in ninth place, eight points adrift of the play-off places.

Some key factors have played an important role in Town being unsuccessful in their promotion bid this term, and we’ve taken a look at a few of those issues.

Late goals

The Terriers made a habit of conceding late in games this season, particularly in the latter part of the campaign.

Town let in 20 goals from the 75th minute of matches onwards, which resulted in them dropping 15 points.

They offset that in part by gaining nine points through scoring late goals, but the setbacks proved costly towards the end of the season.

Town conceded four injury-time equalisers in the final nine matches of the campaign, with the three they let in consecutively against Wycombe Wanderers, Cardiff City and Bolton Wanderers bringing an end to their play-off hopes.

It was an issue that Martin Drury acknowledged at one of his press conferences, with the interim boss saying: “Naturally people will say ‘well we’ve not managed those games well enough when we’ve been in winning positions, because of late goals that’s been conceded’, and I’ll own that and accept that and Jon (Stead) will do the same, but it’s a much bigger piece than that.

“If you look over 44 games this season, statistically we’re the worst in the league at conceding goals after 75 minutes, the worst – 20 on 17 different occasions, so if you’re going to look at the last three, I would say it’s something that needs to be a bigger piece than in-game management over three games.

“Fortunately, we’ve been in winning positions in all three of those games, which is good, but over the course of the season, that stat is alarming.

“There’s clear reasons as to why that is. I don’t want to go into too much, but it’s very, very clear, two or three things wrapped around that, why goals are conceded after 75 minutes, and that’s something that has been addressed and will need to be addressed more in the summer to ensure that next season, that is not the case.”

Defence

Town ended the season with the worst defence in the top half, conceding 64 goals from their 46 matches played.

Only eight sides let in more goals than the Terriers in the division, while Exeter City and Port Vale, who were both relegated, conceded three less than Town.

The Terriers had one of the best attacks in the league, with their 74 goals only bettered by three sides, but their goals against column proved costly.

Town conceded three goals in league games on ten occasions this season, while they also shipped four against Mansfield Town in their final home fixture.

The Terriers started the season with six clean sheets from their opening ten league matches, but recorded seven further shutouts in the 36 games that followed, with none registered in October, November, February or April.

Away record

The Terriers picked up 25 points from their 23 matches away from home this term, leaving them with the 13th-best record in the division on their travels.

Town registered seven victories, four draws and 12 defeats on the road across the campaign, to accumulate 17 points fewer than they did at the Accu Stadium this term.

The Terriers conceded three times on eight occasions away from home, while just four of their clean sheets in the league were registered on their travels.