I left the Reebok Stadium on Tuesday night in a strangely optimistic state of mind. It was strange to be so positive when Town had just suffered their second 1-0 defeat in a row. It was even stranger because on Saturday we play Peterborough United, a team who seem to always get the better of us. However, our performance in defeat is what gave me hope for the rest of the season.
Town head into this weekend's crunch relegation battle in 22nd place in The Championship but only three points behind Blackpool in 16th place, with our opponents just one point and one place behind us. The fact that both teams find themselves in this position is a little surprising considering their very different starts to the season. Two months into the season Peterborough seemed doomed having lost all seven of their opening fixtures, while we were flying high in second place.
Peterborough won three of their next six games after that woeful start to the season, with the third of those victories being a 3-1 home win against Town. Our performance that night was our worst of the season at that point by some distance, and Posh took full advantage as they strolled to a comfortable win. Town fans hoped it was just a minor blip, but in reality it turned out to be the beginning of the end of our dream start. We lost the following game 4-0 against Millwall and won only two of our next 16 matches.
The second of those wins, at home to Crystal Palace, was under the stewardship of Mark Lillis as Simon Grayson was sacked on the back of a 12 game winless run. Those 12 games without a win make the record of current manager Mark Robins look brilliant. The former Rotherham, Barnsley and Coventry manager has amassed three wins from nine matches since taking over in February. It's hard to imagine we could have won another game all season under Grayson.
Our most recent match against Bolton in midweek was certainly a million times better than any of the performances served up at the back end of Grayson's tenure. In fact it was the best we've looked in months, despite the scoreline. Only a man of the match display by Andrew Lonergan, the woodwork and a dodgy referee stopped us from scoring and earning a point, which would have been the very least we deserved having dominated for long spells.
However, when you're down at the bottom of the league nothing seems to go right. Sometimes that bit of luck needed never comes, and it's down to the players to make something happen. Hull's goal last weekend came after a clear foul on James Vaughan, while Sean Scannell was denied a blatant penalty on Tuesday night. If refereeing decisions go against us at the weekend the players need to make sure they're insignificant by winning the match over 90 minutes.
It was a horrendous mistake by captain Peter Clarke that gifted Bolton their winner on Tuesday night, and he's one of only three players remaining from THAT day in May 2011. It's definitely the lowest point in recent memory for Huddersfield fans, as a huge following from West Yorkshire travelled to Old Trafford only to see Peterborough score three goals in seven minutes which ended our quest for promotion. When it matters, we just don't seem to be able to beat them.
Posh manager Darren Ferguson has this week stated that he believes this weekend's game is "bigger than Old Trafford", and it's easy to see why considering neither club wants to face relegation back to League One. A defeat for either team in this huge match would make relegation even more of a possibility - Town would remain in the bottom three with by far the worst goal difference in the league, and Peterborough would be four points from safety.
From a Huddersfield perspective this weekend's game really is do or die. It might be a footballing cliché but we have six cup finals remaining starting against a Posh team who are unbeaten in their last seven league games and will be every bit as up for it as we are. If we perform as well as we did on Tuesday night we definitely have a great chance of coming away with the result, and the three points, that we desperately need.
The league as it stands:
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