'They are a good team' - Huddersfield boss Duff reflects on Bolton defeat

MICHAEL Duff was disappointed with what he got from a strong Huddersfield Town side as they exited the Vertue Trophy at Wanderers.

Coming into the match on the back of five straight wins in all competitions, the Terriers boss felt a quality line-up did not live up to the standards they had set in League One in recent weeks.

Trailing to a Klaidi Lolos header at the break, Aaron Collins came off the bench to score twice before the end to send Bolton through to the round of 16 for the third consecutive year.

Duff was left reflecting on a performance he felt was under-par.

“It was a bit flat, disjointed, it probably started in the warm-up with (Jonathan) Hogg getting injured literally as we were running in, so we had to change the team,” he said after the game.

“I thought there was nothing in the game first half, I didn’t think we deserved to be losing and I thought it was quite a good game, two good teams going at it.

“The frustration is that their opportunities come from us being really loose with the ball. We looked open, disjointed in our shape, which again has looked good, looked structured.

“They haven’t had to do that much to score. We made a couple of mistakes, Chappy (Jacob Chapman) made his first one and he doesn’t get helped by the referee because it has cannoned off the lad’s arm. I don’t think he knows anything about it, but it’s handball.

“The third goal is poor, and it’s just individual errors.

“It’s tough because we wanted to win, we didn’t toss the game away when you look at the team we picked there are all first team players. So managing minutes and players knowing what’s coming up in the next few weeks, it is relentless and we are light in certain areas of the pitch.”

Bolton Wanderers manager Ian Evatt shake hands with Huddersfield Town manager Michael Duff at the end of the match (Image: CameraSport - Lee Parker)

Huddersfield had climbed to fourth in the League One table with a strong run and beaten Wanderers soundly in September. But Duff admitted not enough of his players were up to scratch.

“It’s difficult to win a game,” he said. “Don’t take it for granted, or think ‘it’s OK, we’ll be alright’ – you need seven or eight players to turn up to win a game of football and today we didn’t have seven or eight, we had three or four, which gets you beat. Five or six might get you a draw.

“They are a good team, this is a difficult fixture in this competition and in our section it’s probably one of the hardest draws you can get. But we need to be better, collectively, and now it’s can we react positively again.”

Only 1,800 supporters were in the stadium, which made for a curious atmosphere, and though Huddersfield had a spell at 1-0 where they looked capable of getting level, Duff took few positives from the game.

He added: “It’s difficult and almost reminds you of the Covid season, and I thought the referee refereed it a little bit like that ss well, like a pre-season game, letting certain things go and not being pernickety with others. I can’t control anything else.

“I was OK with the first half it was just decision making in the second half.

“They didn’t give up, we could have had a penalty in the 94th minute to make it 3-2, we had a couple of good opportunities too and the keeper has made some good saves.

“There are always positives, even though they are hard to find when you get beat. I appreciate supporters have paid their money – I don’t know how much it is, but it’s still money – and to travel but we were disappointing. Hopefully they have earned a little bit of credit over the last six to eight weeks and we need to get back on the horse and try to win Saturday.”