Luck is vital for any successful side says Huddersfield Town's Terry McDermott

Oct 9 2010 by Dougie Thomson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

IT DOESN’T matter whether it’s England, Liverpool or Huddersfield Town – sometimes you need that little bit of luck to succeed.

That’s the view of Terry McDermott, whose 40-plus years in football have included spells at all three of the above, as well as Bury, Newcastle United, Cork City and Cypriot side APOEL Nicosia.

And after three games in which Town enjoyed very little, the assistant manager believes the break which went their way against Peterborough United in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy on Tuesday might just get their campaign back on track.

The 3-2 second-round win at the Galpharm snapped a run of three straight League I defeats in which Town failed to score.

Graham Carey’s sixth-minute opener, which Posh and prospective England keeper Joe Lewis looked to have covered but allowed to slip through his hands, paved the way for a spell of Town dominance which brought two beautifully-struck goals by Anthony Pilkington.

Three up within 24 minutes, Town were forced to dig in after Posh pulled one back though Aaron Mclean early in the second half, then forced a tense finale after Mark Little grabbed a second in the 87th minute.

And both sides of the performance pleased 58-year-old McDermott, right-hand man to Lee Clark since the Geordie’s appointment as Town boss in December 2008.

“It was an important win and we were all delighted with it,” said the Liverpudlian, who enjoyed a trophy-laden eight-year stint at Anfield and won 25 England caps.

“I was lucky enough to play the game at the highest level, and while you obviously need good players to succeed, you also need Lady Luck on your side.

“It wasn’t always there with England, and sometimes you do start to think the world’s against you, but we got a lot of it at Liverpool.

“Here at Huddersfield, we didn’t seem to get any in the games against Swindon, Rochdale and Bristol Rovers.

“You look at the stats for the Rochdale and Bristol games, and it’s astonishing that we didn’t score.

“We hammered Rochdale for the bulk of the game and ended up losing 3-0 – we were all in disbelief after that – then against Bristol, were created chance after chance only to get done in the fourth minute of injury time.