Head coach David Wagner has hailed Huddersfield Town’s character and adaptability following victory over Aston Villa.
Hosting Steve Bruce’s side at the John Smith’s Stadium on Tuesday evening, it was pretty much a tight game with few clear cut chances for either side, but Tommy Smith’s winner on 69 minutes returned all three points in the tie and Wagner couldn’t have been more pleased.
Speaking to the Official Site in his post game press conference, Wagner acknowledged that Villa’s style of play made life difficult for us, but he felt we had adjusted very well to it on the day.
‘It was an ugly football match; it wasn`t nice in terms of the technical side of the game but my players responded to the situation and it was great to see. I`m very happy with what they did today, they`ve shown they can play in this way in the past but today they confirmed they are able to play in a technical way and in a working and fighting way as well. It was a good result against a very strong opponent; credit to Aston Villa they showed over the whole match how strong they are and they had some good opportunities in the first half. In this tight even game a set piece decided the match and I`m very happy that Tommy Smith put the ball in the net.’
With Villa being on the back of three straight wins despite their struggles this year after relegation, Wagner believed that it was a big win for Huddersfield in our battle for promotion this year.
‘Everyone was aware of how much quality Aston Villa has but we tried everything again, we weren`t our best in terms of playing on the pitch, but this wasn`t important; what was important today was we were playing our best in terms of the fighting and working attitude. It`s a great result, a massive three points and a huge statement to come back on track with a clean sheet after the defeat a few days before. The players and the supporters should be very proud after the game today.’
With a set piece leading to the goal, the gaffer also praised coach Andy Hughes as set piece routines had been worked on ahead of the game.
‘The goal and set piece is credit to Andy Hughes; this morning he worked on different variations for our set pieces, alongside this you need the quality of Tommy Smith to show such a good strike. It`s nice to see because in tight games, as we said before, set pieces are very important; we`re very happy that we were very confident and got a lot of the details right this evening.’
With this season seeing a number of games ground out by Huddersfield, Wagner believed it was a nice trick to have and he was confident we would take our chance.
‘We have a lot of quality in the air, if our opponent launches forwards long ball I have no concerns. On the other side I think it`s shown how close this game was. At this stage of the season we should stop questioning the character of this group and these players; they will always have my credit. I enjoy every single second of working with these players. I`m very happy for them and that we`re back on track.’
He also had praise for the fans.
‘The atmosphere is outstanding, like our group, now we have two away games so we need big away support and then we will see you all back here against Burton.’
