The future's bright, things we noticed from Huddersfield Town's U23 victory over Newcastle United

Huddersfield Town’s B Team moved into the knockout stage of the Premier League Cup with a 2-0 win over Newcastle United on Monday night.

An excellent goal from Jaheim Headley and a scrambled finish from Danny Grant saw the Terriers home to finish top of Group G after an excellent campaign that saw them win five of their six games and score 17 times in the process.

With that in mind we thought we’d have a look at last night’s game and tell you a few things we noticed. Spoilers: it’s all good news.

The first point is less something we noticed and more just something we want to say, Town’s Premier League Cup campaign has been a lot of fun. The Terriers have excelled in some games, merely been really good in others.

Topping Group G is not to be sniffed at ahead of two Premier League academies and an accomplished Birmingham City one too. The fact it’s been good to watch, there’s been goals galore, and it’s given several players the competitive edge needed to get themselves on the fringes of the first team has been a huge bonus.

There are moments watching the B Team where you can see the lineage for sure. Carlos Corberan was the frontline change to a club that wanted to shift its culture and now you can see the first team style throughout this B Team.

This is an important marker for the future. There is a reason a Jon Russell can come in and look so comfortable. Pattern recognition is key, and in a 3-4-3 against Newcastle the B Team looked to build the play in the exact same way as the first team, use the same out balls, and set up to defend with a midfielder dropping in Hogg-style to make up the extra man when required.

This may sound obvious and something that should be standard practice but believe us, it’s not