Huddersfield captain Jonathan Hogg has stressed that his side are in the play-off final on merit, even with Nottingham Forest favourites for promotion.
Hogg was quick to point out it was the Terriers who finished higher in the Championship table, two points above Steve Cooper’s side. The pair won one game apiece in their regular season meetings, while they also faced off in the FA Cup, Forest winning the tie. A fourth meeting of the season at Wembley on Sunday will be the most nail-biting of the lot.
Midfielder Hogg said: “We finished third, so on paper we’re the third-best team in the league. People talk about Forest this and Forest that, we finished above them, does that make us the better team? I don’t know.
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"But in that dressing room we’ve got belief in ourselves so we don’t want to look at or concentrate too much on Forest, we know what we’ve got to do, we know where we need to be. If you turn up on the day that team will win because there’s not a massive difference between the two sides.”
One difference between the two teams is the experience they have of such pressure occasions. Sunday’s game will be Hogg’s third play-off final, having lost with Watford to Crystal Palace in 2013 and beaten Reading on penalties with the Terriers in 2017, and he’s not the only one in the Huddersfield squad who know what it’s like to be in a play-off final.
“Of course, you do something for the first time and you’re not used to it, you can be caught like a rabbit in the headlights,” Hogg said. “We went through it the other day and I think at least half the squad has played at Wembley in play-off finals whether it was the Championship or League One or whatever, so most of us have been there and done it.
“Definitely winning feels a lot better, let me tell you that! When I lost the first one it was 10 years ago now, a long time ago, and I was young and at the start of my career. The last one I can remember like it was yesterday, it’s a lot more special when you do have the memories when you are successful.”
