Lee Clark looks for positive Huddersfield Town reaction in practice game

HUDDERSFIELD Town boss Lee Clark will be looking to his players to show their ability without the ball as he holds an ‘in-house’ game tomorrow.

The behind closed doors game will see all Town’s squad involved and Clark will want to see his charges match the creative abilities that have been apparent in their pre-season games with an equal amount of application when trying to stop their opponents.

There were 876 Town fans in attendance in a crowd of 4,478 at Oakwell to see Clark’s side slip to a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Championship outfit Barnsley at the weekend, and the manager will want to see how his squad react after their latest run-out.

“I said to the players after the Barnsley game that it was a tremendous exercise for us,” said Clark.

“It was just what we needed to test ourselves and in many ways we got exactly what we wanted from the game, having come up against a very good Barnsley side.

“There were plenty of positives from the game, and I felt we got better as the game went on.

“However, as good as we were with the ball, we were pretty average without the ball.

“We were creative in possession, but when we were not in possession there were times when we didn’t make a tackle or gave up the ball.

“But we finished the game strongly, so we came out of it with plenty of positives and a number of things that we have got to work on too.”

Among the major pluses for Town were the performances of Celtic loanee Graham Carey at left-back and Joey Gudjonsson in midfield.

“The pair already seem to be making themselves favourites with the fans,” said Clark.

“But I knew that we had got great quality in Graham, and Joey is all-action and sprays the ball around and gets involved with all aspects of play in midfield.”

Town have their last pre-season run on Saturday at Scunthorpe United and Clark will be after another strong display before the League I campaign gets under way at Notts County on August 7.

“We have our game among our players and then we have the game against Scunthorpe which will be the last opportunity for everyone before we go on and get started from there.”

The Iron will provide another good test for Town, with Nigel Adkins’ side unbeaten in four pre-season outings.

Their last run-out on Saturday brought a 1-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday and they are in action again tonight when they take a team to Blue Square Bet Premier outfit York City.