In my September article, I said Huddersfield Town would be ‘formidable’ at home ‘with the fantastic crowd driving the team on’.
So far I am happy to have been proved right.
However, I also said true success would ‘depend on our away form’ and I’m NOT happy to have been proved right about that as well.
All of Town’s poor performances have been away from home: West Ham United, Swansea City, Liverpool and AFC Bournemouth - scored zero, conceded eleven.
It’s tempting to ask what they’re doing wrong when the team get on the coach but, having had a good old long think about it, I believe the answer is: not a lot.
I think it’s as simple as this: when Town play at home, the crowd makes up for any differences between the teams and away from home, they can’t.
Also, the fine margins seem, to me anyway, to be evenly balanced only at home games.
By fine margins, I mean luck (with deflected shots and the like), injuries and, particularly, officials making mistakes.
Away from home, they’re going against Town at the moment and the opposition are punishing them mercilessly.
Can anything be done about it?
Like David Wagner always says, we can only focus on what we can control.
So the team must keep believing that, when they travel, the fine margins will balance out between now and the end of the season.
Take last Saturday at Bournemouth as a example when everything went against the team and they suddenly found themselves two goals downs.
Such decisions must go Town’s way eventually and the team needs to be ready to exploit it - just like Tom Ince shouldn't stop shooting because he’s not scored yet.
The team needs to keep stretching every sinew and leave nothing on the pitch.
The players must remember their home crowd is with them at away games while the ones who haven’t travelled are listening out and willing them on even if they can’t be seen.
After a good away performance, isn't the welcome at the next home game even warmer than usual?
The manager might consider shutting up shop for a few away games - we supporters won’t mind, if we’re picking up points.
And we, the fans, must keep doing what we’re doing - even if our home form falters, we must keep cheering.
We have to remember the gap between staying up and going down is small and we are helping the team bridge that gap.
So if you’re unhappy during a particular game, don’t moan - if this season is teaching us anything, surely it’s that booing doesn’t work.
And hopefully, by the end of the season, this poor away form will be long forgotten.
Bill has supported Huddersfield Town since August 1970, travelling up and down the country and visiting around 50 away grounds in the process.
Having retired from his job with Pennine Housing in Halifax two years ago at the age of 56, the lifelong Town supporter is currently pursuing his dream of becoming a published author.
