Huddersfield Town told to 'put things right' after Charlton Athletic horror-show

Huddersfield Town goalkeeper Lee Nicholls acknowledged that his side “need to put things right” when they face Lincoln City tomorrow evening following a disappointing weekend showing at Charlton Athletic.

The Terriers suffered a 4-0 defeat to their fellow promotion hopefuls at the Valley on Saturday, with Town following up their 5-1 victory over Crawley Town prior to the international break with a convincing loss.

Jon Worthington’s side trailed inside the first minute as Matt Godden headed the Addicks in front, before a brace from Tyreece Campbell and an own goal from Nicholls left Town resoundingly beaten.

The result leaves the Addicks fourth in the League One table following their eighth straight win at the Valley, while Town dropped out of the play-offs and down one place to seventh in the division with their defeat.

Worthington’s side now have a quick turnaround as they take on 12th-placed Lincoln City at Sincil Bank tomorrow evening, 7.45pm kick-off.

Reflecting on Saturday’s loss, Nicholls told BBC Radio Leeds: “We never got out the blocks quick enough, and probably gave them a goal too early, and made a few mistakes which cost us. We were always on the back foot from that point. It’s disappointing obviously, but we’ve got a game on Tuesday night to put it right, and that’s what we need to do.

“From the kick-off, I think we were okay, and then we just make a sloppy mistake and give the ball away, they play down the line, great ball and header, it’s a good goal, sometimes you need to hold your hands up.

“Mistakes happen in football games, it’s just the reaction that I’m disappointed with. We should’ve dug in for 15 to 20 minutes, and try to just keep it to 1-0 and then go from there, but unfortunately we didn’t, they scored another good goal.

“Second half we came out and tried to make things happen, but credit to Charlton today, I thought they were good. In my opinion they fought a lot harder than us today, and credit to them, but we need to put things right for Tuesday night, and sort of turn things around again.

“We’ve played against Nathan Jones numerous times in my career, and he’s always got the same type of team. Personally, I knew what type of game it was going to be, and you’ve got to be prepared for that. We’ll review it tomorrow and Monday, and see what we can put right, and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Following Saturday’s loss, the Terriers remain on 61 points from 38 matches played, with Town now sitting one point outside of the play-off places with eight games of their season remaining, and Nicholls added: “This club doesn’t deserve to be in this league, it’s something that us as a squad need to realise and stand up to, and fight for the fans, the club, for Worthy, but today it just never happened. It’s something that we’ve got to make sure happens on Tuesday.”

Town will now look to produce a response against a Lincoln side that have picked up 50 points from 39 matches played, with Michael Skubala’s side beaten 1-0 at top-two chasing Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday.

Looking ahead to Lincoln, Nicholls said: “It’s another tough game, Lincoln will come and they’ll fight, they’ll scrap and they’ll make it difficult, so we need to rise to it, especially if we’re going to make a push for play-offs.”