Peterborough United manager Robbie Savage was unequivocal after his team’s 4-1 loss at Huddersfield Town that it was the Terriers’ third goal that ‘finished the game’ at Accu Stadium.
Savage was justified in that view. Posh had just pulled a goal back after going 2-0 down in a scruffy League One match that struggled for quality but was punctuated by exactly that. It was, said Savage, a game of moments.
Peterborough went on to halve the deficit but it was Huddersfield’s second goal that switched the valve on the tension in the stadium. Both were scored by Joe Taylor, a striker who’s young yet proven in the third tier and destined to join Savage among the ranks of Wales’ full internationals.
Joe Taylor is Huddersfield’s prodigal signing
The 23-year-old, formerly of Peterborough, joined Huddersfield in January 2025 after a prolific loan spell in League One with Lincoln City. Taylor scored on his debut but injury soon curtailed his progress and the Terriers’ soon started to cycle through managers.
Players left and players arrived; Huddersfield’s squad is unrecognisable from the one Michael Duff inherited in 2024. Taylor is one of a few players who’ve done both and has experienced the upheaval as directly as anyone in the current squad.
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At the same time as Lee Grant was dismissed as Duff’s permanent successor in January, Taylor left Huddersfield on loan and spent the second half of 2025/26 scoring goals in their division for Wigan Athletic.
When Huddersfield and Wigan meet on Saturday, Taylor will line up for the Terriers. After a tumultuous spell of goalless runs, misuse and exile, the striker is finally enjoying the platform he needs to be the signing Huddersfield wanted him to be.
On a miserable night in West Yorkshire that was illuminated by four moments of genuinely excellent finishing, Taylor’s two goals won the game. That’s what Taylor does, and it’s what Huddersfield missed out on until Martin Drury reintegrated him and helped to unleash his goal threat at the club that invested in it some time ago.
Their win moved them into the top two and Taylor’s brace put him on eight league goals in 10 matches. Only Kyle Wootton of leaders Stockport County has more, and both Taylor and teammate Derensili Sanches Fernandes match Wootton for overall goal contributions.
Taylor’s shooting numbers and performance against expected goals suggest that he’s capable of outstripping Wootton over the course of the season, but there’s data on paper and there’s data in observation.
The real value of Taylor’s two goals against Peterborough, beyond the three points, is that neither he nor Huddersfield were at anything like their best and he produced a couple of goals anyway.
Spinning wins from scraps is exactly what Huddersfield need
He’s had better all-round matches and been unable to take advantage but these goals were everything Drury could want from his leading hitman. They were pure Joe Taylor.
The first was all his own doing. He pinched a loose ball in midfield and raced clear to slot the ball past Posh goalkeeper Alex Bass. The second was made by his movement and finishing to convert a terrific cross from substitute Marcus Harness.
These were the moments Savage acknowledged and the moments that made the difference. The ability to spin an evidently tired performance in the brutal Saturday-Tuesday rhythm of the EFL into two match-winning goals is not common. There’s a reason Drury hugged Taylor like a returning son when he was substituted to a standing ovation.
Drury said after the match that Huddersfield have given too much attention to outside expectations since they were relegated from the Championship, and that they’ve done so at the expense of holding themselves accountable internally.
It was a damning assessment of what came before him but the need to return to second-tier football is as acute now as it was under Duff two years ago.
Having a striker who can turn draws into wins, who can turn an ugly 1-0 lead into 3-1 in just a few minutes without playing all that well for an hour beforehand, is the kind of strength that might just take them there.
