Michael Duff addresses Huddersfield Town's 'frustrating' EFL Trophy exit

Michael Duff is confident his promotion-chasing Huddersfield Town players won’t let Tuesday’s meek defeat at Bolton Wanderers affect them.

The Terriers were knocked out of the EFL Trophy yesterday, trailing 3-0 before Josh Dacres-Cogley’s deflected own goal reduced the deficit.

But with seven wins and two draws from their last nine League One games - form which has earned Duff a nomination for November’s manager of the month award - the Terriers’ chief sees the weekend home game with Lincoln City as a chance to forget about the exit in the last 32 stage of the competition.

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“Hopefully they’ve earned a bit of credit the last few weeks and get back on the horse on Saturday,’’ said Duff. “You are going to lose games and there’s a way to lose and we know why we lost - our quality and decision-making. We’ve had other games when people haven’t turned up at all and they are the ones which are hard to accept. You hope not many people have an off-day on the same day.”

Duff made six changes to his side from last weekend’s impressive win at Mansfield, victory which cemented their place in the play-off zone. Saturday’s opponents are five places and eight points behind Town.

The boss said: “We won’t let it knock us. It’s difficult to win a game - don’t take it for granted. Don’t assume we will be alright as it’s not the case at all.

“You need seven or eight players to turn up to win a game of football and we didn’t have that, we probably had three or four which gets you beat. Five or six might get you a draw.

“Bolton are a good team, it was a difficult game in this competition - one of the hardest draws we could get but we need to be better and can we react positively again?”

Town enjoyed a thumping 4-0 win at Bolton in League One in September, a rare win at the time sandwiched in a run of seven defeats in league and cup.

There was little chance of a repeat this time around and Duff admitted: “It was a bit flat, disjointed and it started in the warm up with Hoggy [Jonathan Hogg] getting injured as we were running in. There was nothing in first-half, two good teams going at it.

“The frustration is there - their opportunities came from us being really loose with the ball. We looked open, we looked disjointed and a couple of mistakes [cost us] - Chappy [goalkeeper Jacob Chapman] made his first mistake and doesn't get any help from the referee. The third goal is poor. It’s tough. We want to win and we’ve not tossed the game away as we picked first-team players.

“It’s managing players, managing minutes and knowing what’s coming up in the coming weeks, it’s relentless.”

The opener on Tuesday came five minutes before the break, as Klaidi Lolos ghosted into space behind Josh Ruffels to head in. But two goals from Aaron Collins on 80 and 83 minutes killed the tie off. Keeper Chapman dallied on the ball and Collins pinched possession for an embarrassing tap-in, before the substitute ran in behind the centre-halves to slot home.

Duff added: “I was OK with the first-half, it was more about decision-making second half with and without the ball. The players didn’t give up, kept going and we had good opportunities late on. I appreciate the supporters have paid their money and travelled and we were disappointing.”

Duff is shortlisted for the November manager of the month award after taking seven points from nine, along with Wycombe’s Matt Bloomfield, Stockport’s Dave Challinor and Wrexham’s Phil Parkinson. The winner is announced on Friday morning.