87.8% pass success, 1 goal: Huddersfield Town ace’s emergence has been timely in the pursuit of play-off football

Huddersfield Town have stepped up their pursuit of promotion since the turn of the year, going from strength-to-strength under Carlos Corberan. 

Despite the festive period seeing Huddersfield motor through the month unbeaten, January felt like the time that Town got serious when it came to cashing in on the position they’d worked their way into during the first-half of the season.

As the weeks go by, you feel that it’s more and more likely that Corberan will oversee a play-off finish, such is the momentum that’s been built at the John Smith’s Stadium.

One key component since the turn of the year has been Jon Russell – a Chelsea academy graduate who first arrived in Huddersfield as a B Team player.

Corberan didn’t hand Russell his first Huddersfield start until their FA Cup third round win over Burnley, whilst his next opportunity in the starting XI came in the next stage of that competition against Barnsley.

Since then, though, Russell has established himself as a first-team regular, which is underlined by his official promotion from the B Team and the fact that he was then rotated out of the side that lost to Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup in a bid to keep him fresh for the Championship.

Russell had an impressive full league debut in the goalless draw against Sheffield United, where he was denied his first goal for the club after an offside call. That maiden Huddersfield strike did come not long after, as Russell finished with extreme composure to complete a late turnaround against Cardiff City.

That’s a moment that sticks in the mind when you take a look through the 21-year-old’s first 814 minutes in the Town first-team, but so many other traits catch the eye.

Russell is a nuisance whenever his towering figure