DONAL McDERMOTT is confident Huddersfield Town can win promotion to the Championship – and that he can play his part.
The fleet-footed 22-year-old Irishman has had to be patient since moving from Manchester City in the summer.
But he caught the eye when making a sixth League I start in Monday’s 1-0 win over Chesterfield, and is hopeful of facing Carlisle in Friday night’s follow-up festive fixture back at the Galpharm.
McDermott, who has made 11 Town starts in all and appeared three times as a substitute, linked well with right-back Jack Hunt on Boxing Day.
“I see myself as a winger, but I’m happy to play anywhere, even behind the front two,” said the man who figured against Town when on loan to Bournemouth in last season’s play-offs.
“It’s been frustrating, but anyone joining Town knows that, with the squad we’ve got here, getting into the team is going to be tough.
“I also know the manager has got to pick a team that he thinks can win a game. Hopefully I did well enough on Monday to play again against Carlisle.”
McDermott says Town are striving to be more consistent after struggling to maintain their first-half momentum after the break against Chesterfield.
“We played some of our best football of the season in the first half, and I think we showed how well we can play,” he said.
“But the trick is getting that over a full 90 minutes and we’ll have to work hard in training to reach that level of consistency.
“We wanted to carry on in the second half from where we’d left off, but they’d obviously had a good talking to at half-time as they came out a lot more organised.
“At least we got the three points, and we dug in to get them. There’s a never-say-die attitude here that’s summed by both the Sheffield Wednesday game (which finished 4-4) and Monday’s.
“It means things look all right for us. The manager set us a target of two points a game and we’re somewhere near that. But we know there’s a long way to go yet.”
Town, who dropped a place to fifth after Sheffield United’s 2-1 win over Notts County yesterday, reach the halfway point of the campaign against Carlisle having collected 42 points from the 66 available so far.
South Yorkshire referee Michael Naylor will be in charge against the Cumbrians, who fought out a 3-3 draw at Preston on Boxing Day, when Town old boy James Berrett was on target.
Brunton Park boss Greg Abbott will be without his former Rangers striker Rory Loy, who broke a leg during the Deepdale clash.
