28 August 2021

Carlos Corberan hails Huddersfield’s maturity as they beat Reading to go fourth

28 August 2021

Head coach Carlos Corberan praised Huddersfield’s maturity as his side leapt to fourth in the Championship with a comprehensive 4-0 victory over Reading.

Lewis O’Brien opened the scoring before the break, and the Terriers then ran riot in a scintillating second half that brought goals from Matty Pearson, Sorba Thomas and Danny Ward.

“I am happy because the team played good football, was very serious and competed very well,” said the Terriers boss.

“We had good moments of football in attack and defence and you start to enjoy that with the positive collective performance.

“Sorba Thomas is a player that helps the team a lot. He needs more minutes and is using those minutes well.

“The whole team played well, they were solid in defence, had good pressing, managing the ball, creating chances – I like to see the team play with personality and maturity.”

It is the first time since their promotion season in 2017 that Huddersfield have won three league games in a row.

Corberan added: “This result for the club is so important because to win three in a row is not easy in the Championship. Only Fulham had done that so far. Only seven teams had won two in a row. So to win three in a row is great.

“What is important is to have a level of maturity on the pitch and that is one of the strengths of this team right now. It is finding that balance between competing well and playing well.

“We are focused on good performances in attack and defence and you don’t always get that. We should always focus more on ourselves than our opponents.

“To have 10 points now is the big positive, more so that the league position. That defeat to Fulham could have brought in doubts but we are now working well.”

O’Brien opened the scoring on the day it appeared interest in him from Leeds had cooled.

“I know our club are making a lot of effort to keep O’Brien as he is a very good player,” said the Town boss.

“He is one of the key players in our club, not just what he can give you on the pitch but off the pitch as well.”

For Reading boss Veljko Paunovic it was a miserable afternoon.

“I think it is a game to forget as soon as possible,” he said.

“We can’t ignore how we feel but we have to use this defeat as a catalyst to bring back the spirit and the mojo we have lost so far.

“I also think we have to acknowledge the team is incomplete and has been for the whole of pre-season. I think there are two reasons why the team is incomplete.

“We lost certain players and didn’t replace them and secondly it is the injuries and those are difficult to replace because they are our players.

“This is nothing new, it is just a fact in football and I also want to take full accountability and responsibility for our team for not putting on a performance and not being at our best.

“The team should defend as a team not just the centre-backs. When you have to move pieces around, it impacts everywhere.

“We all have to do better, it is not a matter of one man or one line of the team, it is the whole holistic approach that we have to get back in good shape.

“We all should have done better today, especially in the second half. In the first half everyone did their best and we had urgency to defend.

“The second-half performance wasn’t good and we all feel responsible about it. We need to use this hard feeling as a catalyst to fix things.

“We need to recover mentally, we need a couple of days off training and then we need to come back and lift the mentality and do everything to be in the best possible shape.”

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