Jon Russell's 'special' qualities after Huddersfield Town breakthrough following Chelsea release

Carlos Corberan would have been happy with Jon Russell’s performance against Cardiff City even if he hadn’t grabbed the Terriers’ 96th-minute winner, but feels the midfielder has proved something by bagging his first goal for the club.

The 21-year-old Chelsea academy graduate arrived at Huddersfield Town in the summer as a free agent and spent the first half of this season playing B-team football.

But after making the most of a pair of starts in the FA Cup, Russell has broken into Corberan’s first XI in the Championship and put in a series of impressive performances against Sheffield United, Fulham and Cardiff.

His calmly-taken goal deep into injury time on Wednesday night completed a late turnaround for Town as they came from a goal down to take victory, and Corberan said: “For me it reflects the good work he is doing and I think his contribution has been very high even if he hadn’t scored the goal.

“But the fact he scored the goal in a moment where of course it was important to have that point of finishing and that point of quality in the box, shows he has the skills to not only be a positional (defensive) midfielder but to play as a number 8 or a number 10 higher in the pitch.”

After the Cardiff game, Corberan had echoed his assistant Danny Schofield in describing Russell as ‘a special player’.

When further pressed on what made the midfielder so special ahead of the Birmingham game, Corberan said: “I think he has the skill to manage the ball and keep the ball, and he’s a player that has a level of calm in different areas of the pitch.

“This is very important because sometimes in football having a player who can take two or three seconds with the ball allows the team to make a fast attack.

“Sometimes you can