Huddersfield Town face nervous wait on key duo as Michael Duff makes Birmingham City point

Huddersfield Town boss Michael Duff has warned his side that it will be a “long journey home” if they take tomorrow's clash at Leyton Orient for granted.

The Terriers take on the O's at Brisbane Road on Tuesday evening, 7.45pm kick-off, as they look to build on a six-match unbeaten run in League One.

Duff’s side moved into the play-off places at the weekend, with Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Charlton Athletic leaving them fifth in the table ahead of tonight’s clash, on 26 points from 15 games played. The Terriers have picked up 14 points from their last six matches in the division, and now take on a side who sit fourth from bottom in the league.

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Richie Wellens’ side have registered 15 points from 15 games to date, but Duff has warned Town against showing any signs of complacency heading into their latest League One assignment.

Looking ahead to the clash in his pre-match press conference on Monday, the Terriers’ boss said: “Tough game. The last two games, beat Rotherham and beat Blackpool 3-0, Blackpool came and did that to us here.

“Huddersfield fans will think I just sit here and say every week ‘it’s a tough game’, if you’re not at it at this level, that’s what happens. Birmingham go to Shrewsbury who’ve not won a game, they got pumped in the last home game, and then they go and beat the standout favourites for the league, so if you’re not quite at it in this league, you’ll get hurt.

“We’ve found that out this season already, so we’re hoping that we keep chipping away at the same old things that I keep going on about, but it’s what you’ve got to keep doing. We’ve shown a little bit more consistency, I think we’re unbeaten in six now, so it’ll be a tough game.

“I don’t think we can go there thinking we should beat them, I think we’ve proved this season already (that they can’t do that). I go back to the two home games that we’ve lost, everyone just assumed ‘right, we just beat Bolton, we’ll win the next two games’ – bang, bang, you haven’t got a game and you’ve been thumped twice.

“The one thing the players have learned hopefully is that we need to go there with a swagger and arrogance that we’re a good team, but knowing why we’re a good team’s the key. If we just rock up thinking ‘well they’re in the bottom four, we’re in the top six, we’ll beat them’, it’ll be a long journey home.

“When we’re at it, we’ve been a good team, but we’ve shown too many inconsistencies, whether that’s week to week or in games as well. I thought on Saturday we were pretty good for the full 90 minutes in really, really testing and difficult conditions, so that’s hopefully a start.”

The Terriers will be without injured duo Matty Pearson and Rhys Healey for the trip to Brisbane Road, with the pair suffering setbacks in the victory over Charlton. Duff wasn’t able to confirm timescales at his press conference, but has suggested that the two players could be facing extended spells on the sidelines.

“They’re going for scans today, so until we get the results of the scans (they won’t know),” the head coach said. “They don’t both look great. Rhys’ looks like a significant calf injury, and Matty we’re still not sure. He’s got a couple of sensations with his ankle and his foot, so again until we get the scan you can speculate, and we’ll just deal with whatever the radiologists tell us. We’ll get that in the next 24 to 48 hours. It doesn’t look great, they won’t be travelling this week.

“Matty in particular has been a standout player since he’s got in the team, in terms of character, defensively and goals. Rhys has had real frustrations, and it’s tough for him. Footballers don’t like being injured, and he just can’t seem to catch a break. There’s no consistency to the injuries, it’s a different area.

“We’ll just have to support him the best we can, because of course we want him on the pitch, but he wants to be on the pitch as well, so we need to make sure that he’s alright in himself now, as well as getting him fit.”