This is a theme that Huddersfield Town supporters are all too acquainted with, as it has appeared frequently this season.
The match concluded 1-1 with Michal Helik, a dominant defender for the Terriers, scoring an equalizer after Adam Wharton gave Blackburn Rovers the lead.
This season, draws and Huddersfield have gone hand in hand. While this tendency may not appear all that bad on the surface, it still needs to be changed.
In isolation, drawing with Blackburn is a respectable outcome. The team led by Jon Dahl Tomasson is a strong Championship team.
But Huddersfield’s inability to cross the finish line and earn all three points is becoming all too typical.
They currently sit just three points above Queens Park Rangers in 22nd position, which puts them on the verge of relegation, ahead of their encounter on Sunday.
The three teams in the drop zone at the moment are Rotherham United, Sheffield Wednesday, and QPR, but all three are capable of overtaking a team like Huddersfield. There is a five-point difference between Darren Moore’s club and the three teams sitting above them.
Without taking the chance to convert some of these draws into victories, Stoke City and company might start pulling away from Huddersfield until it’s too late. Huddersfield could end up being the only team in the current bottom three with a target on their back.
As previously said, Huddersfield consistently draws its Championship games, even when they play opponents in nearby vicinity.
They lead the division in stalemates (12), with Watford, Rotherham, and Coventry City the only other teams with more than ten (ten).
The two most recent trips of the Terriers show that this pattern has continued into 2024. While it is impressive that Huddersfield has the capacity to fight back from behind against Plymouth Argyle and Blackburn, these are the teams that they must be able to defeat if they are to make a dent in the standings.
In their meetings with the three teams under them, Moore’s team defeated Rotherham 2-0 in September and QPR 2-1 the following month. Between these two wins, they fought out a 0-0 draw at Hillsborough against Sheffield Wednesday and drew with another struggling team Stoke.
As January draws to a close, this is a crucial time for Huddersfield’s season as there are two massive games just around the corner.
In an effort to stave off certain apocalyptic disaster, they will travel to the capital to play QPR first, then on Wednesday they will arrive at John Smith’s Stadium.
Town’s draws against Southampton and Ipswich Town, for instance, were quite outstanding, but they just cannot afford to duplicate this performance in their next two games.
Finding that cutting edge and taking the necessary chances to eliminate Wednesday and QPR is crucial.
Huddersfield may lose more games in which they take risks and show more bravery, but they will also win more. That tendency to push past a draw could just be beginning to tilt the scales in favor of the league table’s win column, keeping Huddersfield in the division.
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