Huddersfield Town midfielder says sorry to fans as Terriers aim to move on from Tamworth debacle

Huddersfield Town midfielder Ben Wiles has acknowledged his side need to be “tougher and stronger mentally” following their shock FA Cup exit at Tamworth.

The Terriers were dumped out of the competition at the first round stage by non-league opponents last Friday as they were beaten 1-0 by a team that sit two divisions below them in the pyramid.

Town have an opportunity to produce a response when they return to League One action at Crawley Town on Saturday. And Wiles is eager for his side to show what they’re about this weekend.

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“It’s one of those games where people expect us to turn over the other team, and rightly so,” said the midfielder. “We were poor on the day, the fans deserved so much more. They were with us as well, so we had no reasons [not to perform] or anything like that.

“Essentially, it’s one of those games now where it’s important to reflect on, in a sense of we have to be tougher and stronger mentally, and change and adapt our game to different opponents. I don’t think we’ve quite just got that yet, and I think that relies on us as players and individuals to kind of not go missing in games like that.

“Obviously I speak for myself and a lot of the lads, we were just disappointed with our performance. There’s so many excuses we could’ve come up with, but essentially at the end of the day it’s just not good enough, and we can only apologise.

“The beauty of football is there’s always another game the following week, so it’s so important for us to reflect, and just put it right, put it to bed, and then give a performance that the fans can talk about, and then that can motivate us for the rest of the season.”

Town head into Saturday's encounter sitting seventh in the League One table, having registered 22 points from 13 matches played, with Michael Duff’s side having won three and drawn one of their last four matches in the division.

They face a side next up who are fourth from bottom in the table and Wiles wants to see no signs of complacency from his team following last week’s defeat.

“I don’t think you can undermine any team in this league,” said Wiles. “I’ve been in League One a few years now, and we’ve been guilty of it at previous clubs where you play the bottom end and you think ‘oh this is going to be an easy game’, but it’s not. They just might have been unlucky, or they’ve just not clicked together yet. It’s going to be a difficult game.

“We’ve spoken about them already, they’re a well-drilled team and they keep possession of the ball, so if we’re sloppy with possession or if we’re not on it, and they keep the ball, then we’re in for a run around.

“We’ve heard good things and positive things from them, so this is not a game we’re going to take lightly, and it’s going to have to need a good performance for us to win.”