Huddersfield Town were largely uninspiring in last nightâs draw with Sheffield Wednesday, with Carlos Corberanâs side flat for large parts of the game and failing to truly test an outfit thatâs heading towards relegation.
Despite falling behind to Josh Windassâ first-half strike, Huddersfield rallied in the second-half and drew parity through a Callum Paterson own goal after Keiren Westwood had denied a Naby Sarr header.
It took a stroke of luck to break Wednesday down as they tried to cling on to precious points, with Paterson somehow diverting the ball over his own line to gift Huddersfield a point.
Corberan reflected on a fair result after the game, but thereâs little denying that his side lacked that killer pass in the final third. That was even despite the best efforts of the busy Lewis OâBrien, who was at least looking to be positive with everything he did.
As our graphic above shows, OâBrienâs basics were good last night and he was at the centre of everything that the Terriers did well in the game.
Early on, a high turnover and key pass into Juninho Bacuna resulted in the latter blazing high and wide of Westwoodâs goal. Despite the lack of composure in the shot, it was a show of intent from OâBrien and a pattern for the rest of his game to follow.
Duane Holmes was guilty of wasting good shooting positions after solid work in possession from OâBrien in the left channel, whilst the 22-year-old unleashed one of his three shots on goal; like Bacuna, he was off target.
Prior to Windass opening the scoring, everything good Huddersfield were doing was coming through OâBrien. His tally of three key passes has only been bettered once this season (Preston away), despite the fact it came from just a total of 54 completed passes.
Corberan demanded a little more intent from Huddersfield as they looked for a route back into the game in the second-half, with OâBrienâs channel again bringing them success as he looked to link with Pipa.
The introduction of Yaya Sanogo and Isaac Mbenza added more attacking threat, with the latterâs free-kick causing the initial chance in the build-up to Patersonâs error of judgement for the goal.
As it so often does, the goal put fresh zip in Huddersfieldâs stride, as OâBrien probed: tackling, dribbling and driving the Terriers on from midfield.
A shot late in the game was wild and mirrored Bacunaâs first-half effort, but another was deflected and left Westwood scrambling to cover his post.
Had that nestled into the bottom corner it would have been a crucial three points for Huddersfield and, in truth, probably undeserved given the nature of their performance.
However, if anyone deserved a slice of luck it was OâBrien, who buzzed with energy and pumped some positivity into Huddersfieldâs performance from the get-go.