After beating a top-end Championship opposition in the first round, Huddersfield Town knocked out Premier League Sunderland in their second round game of the league cup. And while some may quibble that Town needed penalties in both games, the fact they have won two penalty shootouts can only be good experience. While we don’t want to rely on the lottery of the playoffs to go up this season, if we end up in that situation we will benefit from recent penalty experience. As much as you can practise the technical skill of taking a penalty, nothing compares to doing in a stadium with real pressure (even if the League Cup is a good bit lower stakes than a playoff shootout).
There was an awful lot to like about this Town performance and very little to grumble about. There’s a risk that some fans are going to start complaining that Town aren’t giving them anything to complain about. Maybe I’m drawing too much into a competition that few clubs value until the late stages but this win felt significant in the unfolding story of Huddersfield Town’s season. Getting into the next round or not isn’t the end of the world but these galvanising moments in cup games can have a huge effect on the mood around the squad as well as giving fringe players a chance to shine.
Here are a few of my thoughts on this game.
That goal!
I’ve already written about Leo Castledine’s goal in my player ratings article but it was so good, I’m going to write about it again. It was the sort of volley that tends to be sent into orbit, with the ball dropping awkwardly and the combination of adrenaline and the tendency for players to lean back making over-hitting a dropping ball in the box the norm. So Castledine’s connection is all the better for the number of groan-inducing attempted volleys we’ve seen over the years.
I might be getting a bit giddy but it feels like it was on a par with the volley Tony Carss scored from a corner all those years ago. Sadly, decent footage of that goal doesn’t appear to be readily available on YouTube but a blurry and slightly weird copy is below if you want to refresh your memory. Carss’ goal was from further out and hit directly from the corner, which makes it slightly better in my eyes. Though my vague memory of watching Town back then was that we’d tried and failed with this routine many times before it finally worked with spectacular effect. Castledine’s was hit on pure instinct, which makes it more impressive in some ways.
While pragmatists will say that all goals count the same, whether they’re screamers or bounced in off your backside, these are the sorts of goals that fans remember for years. In fact, I think that scoring brilliant goals is one of the markers that a season could be special. Alongside scoring last minute winners, coming from behind to win, putting together unbeaten runs and there being a particular type of buzz about a team. Town have yet to score an injury time winner, but I sense it’s coming because we often finish games strong and have scored late goals to extend our lead. The unbeaten run was punctured by the Blackpool game but we’ve won the rest of our seven games this season, so it’s easy to imagine putting a run together. But we’ve had a few cracking goals so far and there definitely feels to be a buzz about the place, so I do think this season could be special. Castledine’s goal will be one we associate with this time where optimism is starting to grow at Town, which makes it feel even more special.
A brilliant first half
I’ve covered the goal enough but the rest of Town’s first half performance was excellent too. You could play that 45 minutes on coaching courses if you want a near perfect example of how to play against a team that is technically better than you. Despite Sunderland dominating possession, it was all in front of Town and exactly where we wanted them to be. They struggled to get going because of our excellent pressing from the forwards and the few times they got near our goal, Whatmough and Wallace headed and booted everything clear.
It’s easy to appreciate a slick display of attractive football but in some ways, this sort of disciplined and hard working way of grinding yourself into an advantage takes more skill and mental toughness. If you’re wiping the floor with a team, a misplaced pass or a defender slipping out of position barely matters but with Town’s lead slender and their opponents of a different class to them, we had to get everything right and we pretty much did.
One thing I really liked was how we weren’t just parking the bus. When we got the ball we had players like Taylor and Ashia making selfless runs chasing nothing much which they often made something of just because of their determination. We also played some pretty slick passing to release breakaways at times.
Despite Sunderland having a lot of the ball, it was Town that looked the most threatening and it looked like the team really enjoyed grafting away and sticking to their task. When you consider that this team was mostly players that have had their chances limited so far this season, it was even more impressive that we were so cohesive and disciplined. Sunderland’s completely changed XI from the weekend certainly didn’t look like a functioning unit, despite being littered with expensive signings.
A spirited second half
I can’t be quite so effusive about Town’s second half, as the half time teamtalk in the home dressing room led to a much improved Sunderland team coming out. They played with more width and repeatedly found ways to get in behind our defence despite our backline being pretty conservative by our recent standards (understandably when we were 1-0 up against a team that should have been much better than us).
Rather than snuffing out threats in the early stages and stopping Sunderland’s attacks before they got anywhere, as we’d seen in the first half, we now had to rely on more last-ditch blocks, scrambled clearances and holding our shape against wave after wave of attacks. While it wasn’t how we wanted the game to go, it’s admirable that we managed to keep them out for most of the half even when they were showing some of their abilities.
Sunderland’s goal came at a bad time for Town, as it gave them a boost as the game was entering its final stages. There’s not a lot to say about their goal really, as it was an excellent cross and brilliant movement from their striker to get on the end of it. Maybe the cross could have been stopped, maybe the runner could have been tracked, but that is the kind of goal that we’re very unlikely to concede against League One opposition, so it’s nothing too much to worry about.
It’s grim to look at it this way, but the stoppage to the game just before 90 minutes probably helped Town a lot more than Sunderland. A medical situation in the stands caused the game to be stopped for an extended period of time and it seemed that whatever happened wasn’t too much of an issue as the play resumed later. But, importantly, Sunderland had lost all their momentum and Town had been able to take a breather and prepare for the final stages of the game.
Before play stopped, Town were on the rack and Sunderland looked to have figured out how to break through our defense. Then play restarted and the game felt different. Town’s changes helped, but I think the break allowed for a new phase of play to emerge and I’d say that Town finished stronger than Sunderland and narrowly missed a couple of good opportunities to win it normal time.
More penalty heroics
Typically, penalties are a bit of a lottery but I always felt like Town would be favourites to get through from spot kicks. Historically, we’ve got a great record, recently we beat Leicester and the mood with the group (Lee Grant’s terminology is seeping into my brain) meant that we looked pretty confident.
It’s very rare to see two teams convert all five of their penalties, but Lee Nicholls was unlucky with a few, where he dived the correct way but didn’t quite make the contact he needed. Town’s penalty takers all took theirs well. It was nice that Bojan was trusted with one, as I felt certain he would miss, but his celebration when he scored showed that he still wants to do well for the club even if his chances now look limited.
David Kasumu had been down with cramp in stoppage time, so it was a bit of a surprise to see him step up to take our sixth and final one, particularly when you consider his shots in open play are often high, wide and not very handsome. But penalties are often a test of nerve rather than skill. And Kasumu held his nerve well and converted from the spot.
As I mentioned above, these two penalty shootouts could prove incredibly useful experience if we end up needing to use spot kicks to decide a playoff game. And if nothing else, it’s fun to watch penalty kicks when there’s not so much riding on them.
Town’s squad depth looks very good
The two standout performers in this match were Leo Castledine and Jack Whatmough, who are both players that have lost their place in the starting lineup recently. In Castledine’s case, he’s only started one game, pulled off one of the best tackles we’ve seen in years at our stadium and still got dropped the next game for Ben Wiles. Jack Whatmough had a tricky afternoon against Blackpool but that was after a couple of very good performances against Leyton Orient and Reading.
The fact that we’ve got players not good enough for our league starting eleven that can then play in the cup and be so impressive says something about the depth we have available. That’s before you consider the likes of Ashia, Taylor and Wallace, who would all walk straight into the starting eleven of most other League One teams.
Even Dan Vost, who’s our sixth choice central midfielder behind Kane, Ledson, McGuane, Kasumu and Evans, still managed to hold his own against Premier League opposition. While he wasn’t sensational, he was very steady and everything he did, he did it well.
Town had a big squad last season but sadly it was stretched past its limits by the kind of luck with injuries that had me questioning whether the Accu was built on an ancient haunted burial ground or something. If we can avoid a similar situation occurring this season, then we’ll no doubt continue to benefit from the quality we have on the fringes of our squad.
This cup alleviates a problem for Grant
I’ve written above about why our depth is such an asset but having lots of players that aren’t starting but feel like they should can be a recipe for disaster. While Grant is quick to point out the professionalism of players like Whatmough for reacting well to losing their place in the team, that’s not the norm in football and it’s more common for players to throw their dummies out of the pram if they aren’t getting the minutes they feel like they deserve.
So putting together a good cup run helps Grant with this problem, because there are all these extra games we’re getting where he can bring in the players he’s had to disappoint for league games and they’ve been given a chance to shine. And thankfully, most of the players that have come in have done a good job and shown they can offer something for the team (Dion Charles is the one not in this group but there’s hope if he can keep battling away in these cup games).
It would be great if every team treated the league cup like it actually mattered but while we live in a world where that won’t ever happen, it is a good chance to get minutes into the legs of players that haven’t been playing enough.
This isn’t just about soothing the fragile egos of professional sportsmen either, there’s a practical reason for staying in the cups and giving the whole squad time on the pitch. It means if injury does strike anywhere, we’ll have backup players that won’t be coming in completely cold because they’ve been playing in these games.
It’ll be interesting to see how much Lee Grant values the Car Dealership Cup, when we take on Newcastle U21s next Tuesday. I’d hope it’s a similar team to the one we saw play Sunderland but it’s possible there may be even more rotation and it might be half an Under 21s team we put out ourselves.
Any other business
Tucking our fans away from the action – The Town fans were in fine voice in Sunderland but they had to sing extra loud to be heard because they were so high up. I’m sure there are practical concerns that would make it tricky but it would have been sensible to give the away fans a section that was closer to the action when large swathes of the ground were closed for the night.
Another manager signs our praises – It’s becoming a bit of a pattern now, as Sunderland’s manager was full of praise for Town’s effort in this game before trying to suggest he was more bothered about getting minutes into the legs of his players. Regis Le Bris (a name that sounds like it’s come straight out of an Agatha Christie mystery) said that Town played with passion and that our goal was fantastic. He’s right, of course, but it’s nice that managers are giving credit where it’s due.
The draw – The difficulty ramps up again for Town’s third round game, where they will play Manchester’s City at the Accu Stadium. While it’s probs sensible to not expect much from this game, it will be nice to see Town take on a top side. We played them in the FA Cup in January 2024 and they brushed us aside 5-0 like a minor irritant, hopefully we’ll be more of a handful this time around.
Ledson’s leadership credentials – Ryan Ledson technically had the night off. He may have been the spare man in the squad that travelled in case there was a late injury but regardless, he wasn’t part of the match day squad. So it was nice to see how fired up and engaged he was with his teammates before the penalties. It would be easy to pull the zip on your tracksuit all the way up and hide away from the action but he’s clearly a big influencer in this team (not the social media type) and it looked like he almost can’t help but get involved when things are going on. It’s early days in his captaincy but my impression already is that he’s a natural leader and exactly the type of player we needed to fill the Hogg-shaped hole in the squad.