Head coach David Wagner has been speaking about his delight at Huddersfield’s performance as we booked our place in round four of the FA Cup with victory over Port Vale.
Hosting the side at the John Smith’s Stadium for the game, a brace from Jack Payne and further goals from Harry Bunn and Kasey Palmer gave us a comfortable four nil victory and put us in the hat for tonight’s draw, and speaking to the Examiner a pleased Wagner called it a ‘special’ victory given it was his first FA Cup win.
‘It was the first time this season I have been able to relax a little bit in the last 10 minutes. I think we did everything you have to do as a Championship side playing a League One side in a cup match. We were very focused, very concentrated, we sped the game up in every situation we were able to and we scored some very good goals as well.’
With three of the four goals coming from the 73rd minute onwards, Wagner was also delighted with the way the team kept going right until the end to secure victory and he felt their hard work prior to that had tired the opposition nicely so we could seize the benefits late on.
‘I think that because we played at a high tempo throughout, the spaces started to appear. We still needed to use those spaces and I think we did that very well. It was a good performance and I can’t really ask for any more.’
With Jack Payne getting the brace on the day, the Yorkshire Post also had the gaffer in his post game press conference praising him.
‘We know what a great talent he is. He has had many opportunities in front of goal but what we wanted from him was to hit the target more often. Today he has not just hit the target but hit the net. He has great skills and is very dangerous in the final third.’
With changes made to the starting line up Wagner went on to say that we’d need everybody especially given our numbers, so he was pleased with those who came in and put in a shift.
‘We need players ready for the start of February. Everybody knows we don’t have a big squad but we are able to be successful with our rotation policy.’
