Michael Duff makes Huddersfield Town pledge after squad mentality comments

Huddersfield Town head coach Michael Duff admits his side’s performance at Tamworth was “nowhere near the levels that are accepted at any football club” as they set about trying to rectify the setback.

The Terriers are tasked with bouncing back at Crawley Town on Saturday, having been knocked out of the FA Cup with a 1-0 first-round defeat away to the non-league Lambs last Friday.

Duff acknowledged that last week’s result was a low point for the team and for him personally. While the head coach is keen not to overreact to one result, the Terriers’ boss has left his squad in no uncertain terms that their display at Tamworth was a long way away from where it needed to be.

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

READ MORE:Huddersfield Town chief Kevin Nagle discusses 'horrible' Tamworth loss and fierce fan backlash

Asked at Thursday’s press conference how the defeat gets addressed, Duff said: “You show them why they lost the game. You don’t want to throw the baby out of the bathwater, because we’ve just gone pretty much a month unbeaten. Even with the Tamworth game, you’ve conceded two goals in six games. There’s a bit of reality to it as well.

“Everyone’s disappointed after the game, I didn’t say a lot to them after the game, because I’d have probably ended up saying something I didn’t really mean. That’s why I left it a little bit of time, and then I told them.

“It’s exactly what I thought afterwards, but it’s a little bit less emotional, where you call someone a name that you don’t really mean.

“The bare facts are we never got off the bus, and they’ll have had exactly the same [feeling] (the players). Everywhere you go, every person you speak to over the weekend, everyone’s talking about that, and it’s embarrassing.

“I left school over 30 years ago and I’ve never felt like that after a football game, and I’ve lost games by bigger margins and things, and the players feel it as well.

“They’re not daft. They’re all on social media, so they all see it, and the scrutiny’s intense. The facts are that we weren’t good enough, nowhere near the levels that are accepted at any football club, never mind this one, but football being football, there’s always an opportunity to put it right.”

Duff stressed that both the players and staff need to take collective ownership of the defeat, with the head coach believing that his squad aren’t holding themselves accountable enough at present.

It is another area that the Terriers’ boss is looking to address, with Duff setting out to try and change the mentality of the football club following their relegation from the Championship last term.

“I’ve said this to them, it can’t always be the people in blue (the coaching staff’s responsibility),” said Duff. “It’s something we’re trying to change at the football club, where it’s not just you, don’t [just] look after yourself, dig your mate out.

“It’s easy for me to say ‘well, we prepared it right and you lot were rubbish’, we win and lose together. Were the players good enough? No. The staff, did we impact the game well enough? Probably not, so we have to hold ourselves accountable as well.

“Ultimately the players are the only ones on the pitch that can do anything about it, but I don’t want it to become an us and them thing.

“Do they hold themselves to account enough? At the minute, probably no, but that’s one of the things you’re trying to adjust and fix at the football club.

“Ten of that starting 11 were all playing in the Championship most weeks last year. That’s where they need to hold themselves accountable, and they go ‘hold on a second, I don’t think I should be in League One’, well you were in the Championship last year and you’ve just been beaten by a non-league team, so that’s a personal pride as much as anything else.”