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Danny Cowley's decision to leave Arsenal loanee Emile Smith Rowe out of his starting eleven went down like a lead balloon among Huddersfield Town fans prior to their Saturday afternoon against Derby County, but the Terriers boss insists it was a decision he had to make.

The creative midfielder has made a wonderful first impression on Town fans after starting all of their last five games since joining on loan from the Gunners, but Cowley felt the trip to Pride Park was one game too far for Smith Rowe to start. Instead he came on as a 75th-minute substitution for Andy King in the 1-1 draw.

Cowley said: "Well we didn't want to leave Emile Smith Rowe out. Don't think I woke up pleased that I had to leave Emile out of the starting eleven because he's been excellent for us.

"Really as a football manager you're a supporter as well because you want the team to win, obviously.

"But I just think obviously Emile is very precious to us and it's the first time he's lived a three-game week in his life, let alone at Championship level. He's 19.

"He played on Wednesday and just had something at the back of his knee that was irritating him. We were a little bit concerned about him Wednesday and we just felt it would be too much of a risk.

"Sometimes you just have to be really pragmatic. We've got 13 games left now and we know that if I can get Emile and Karlan [Grant] back on the grass and in the team for ten of those, it gives us a really good chance of doing what we need to do. If I'd risked him and injured him we'd get Karlan back next week but no Emile.

"At the moment Pritch [Alex Pritchard] is close as well but Emile is our only number 10, so you kind of have to make a decision that you know is going to make you unpopular.

"What I've learned to do, which I probably wouldn't have done in my early -- well, to be fair in the early part of my management career nobody cared, we didn't have any supporters, we got away with it!

"But certainly as you get more experienced you just learn to be a bit more pragmatic."