After Saturdays awful performance against Reading I didn’t have much enthusiasm for this game, and judging by the size of the away following a lot of other didn’t either.
Couple that with the fact that we hadn’t won at Huddersfield since 1997, it was a Tuesday night and it was just above freezing and you’ve got the recipe for something that doesn’t really appeal.
How wrong we were. It was a brilliant performance on so many levels.
No more so than by Tomasz Kuszczak making only his 2nd appearance in goal for Wolves. He was truly magnificent and at times seemed like he was having his own save of the season contest with himself the way he threw himself around. It says something that the man of the match in a 4-1 away win is the goalkeeper but without him it would have been a very different story.
He didn’t have nothing but routine saves to pull off in the opening 10 minutes or so and when Dicko slotted home the first goal in from a brilliant through ball from Van La Parra it wasn’t against the run of play.
Minutes later VLP was cynically hacked down by Bunn on the right hand side and was lucky to escape with just a yellow This was to happen on the opposite side of the pitch 10 minutes later with Smith taking out Dicko who seemed like he’d have a clean run on goal if he hadn’t been fouled.
The only reason I can think it was only a yellow being that it was only just inside the Huddersfield half and a long way from goal. In between Sako had narrowly missed from a free kick and had a shot from outside the box blocked when it looked like it could cause some damage.
Robinson, Vaughn and Bunn all had shots saved by Special K but it wasn’t until just before the break that Kuszczak pulled off the first of his wonder saves. Coady had a shot from the edge of the box which seemed to take a deflection yet he somehow managed to get down to to tip wide for a corner. Minutes later he had to get down again from Scannell this time who hit the ball with purpose just outside the box.
Wolves had looked more up for the fight than in recent weeks and the change of formation was certainly having an effect. It was more 4-4-1-1 than our usual 4-2-3-1 and with this meant more attacking threat.
Just after the break Wolves came out of the traps the quicker and when Coady somehow managed to head the ball into his own net from a corner it seemed like there would only be one winner, even that early on. Huddersfield to their credit didn’t hide and continued putting the pressure on and testing the Wolves goal but every time Kuszczak was equal to it.
When Afobe made it 3-0 it did seem that there could be something of a rout about to happen yet within minutes Sako had given the ball away near the touchline and Vaughn had fired the ball into the bottom corner of the net making it 3-1.
Kuszczak would be continued to be tested by Vaughn and one from Butterfield especially yet Huddersfield couldn’t find an answer. Dicko getting the 4th after rounding the keeper when he was completely worn out was well deserved.
There were moments of frustration in all of this jubilation though. Sako had one of his annoying days where he would get into positions and make the wrong decision, one in particular when there were 2 in the box where he squared it. Instead it was blasted over.
Van La Parra also fell into this wormhole of inconsistency but always looks dangerous at the same time. Stearman and Jack Price though were superb throughout, and Danny Batth who I’ve been critical of myself in recent weeks, put in a very dogged grafting performance.
Looking towards Norwich on Saturday though, I’m not sure if this system could be used there as we looked far too open at times and the Canaries are a significantly better team than Huddersfield.
Yet can you really change a winning formula that has just earned you 3 points against a traditional bogey side?
Questions questions.
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