Huddersfield Town was denied a share of the spoils on the east coast as a 92nd-minute goal from Liam Delap gave hosts Hull City all three points at the MKM Stadium.
Much like the draw with Watford last weekend, the Terriers had stifled the opposition for the majority of the game while creating some half chances on the break. However, in the end, a snapshot in the area meant that the Terriers returned home with nothing.
Darren Moore made one change for the game, with club captain Jonathan Hogg returning from suspension to replace Jaheim Headley. They maintained their 3-4-3 formation from the previous weekend, so Ben Wiles moved out to the right, and Sorba Thomas to the left of the front three with Kyle Hudlin.
As was the case against the Hornets, the idea was to stay compact in defence and spring on the break. The first of those breaks came as early as the second minute when Hudlin headed a corner clear to Thomas, and he found Wiles, who sprinted away down the right. He tried to return it to Hudlin at the far post, but the big forward was adjudged to foul the final defender when challenging for the ball.
At the other end, Huddersfield Town’s defence had to block many crosses and shots. The most frequent men to get in the way of things were Matty Pearson and Ben Jackson, who had to stay alert against danger-man Jaden Philogene.
On the other side, Helik had to carefully watch Liam Delap, who had impressive strength and mobility.
Hudlin had another presentable chance in the 10th minute when Hogg intercepted a pass on halfway and immediately played the ball forward. The former Solihull Moors man had made an intelligent arcing run to find space, but his attempted side-footed effort from 20 yards was way too close to goalkeeper Ryan Allsop.
Their next chance to attack came just before the half-hour. Wiles sent a good ball towards Thomas and although it was cut out, Yuta Nakayama picked up the seconds. He immediately transferred it to Thomas on the right, and the Wales international was unlucky to see his curling effort flash just wide of the far post with Allsop watching in hope.
Hull started to test Lee Nicholls from range as the half continued, with our goalkeeper pushing away speculative efforts from Philogene and then Turkey international Ozan Tufan. One of those saves led to a corner that was worked short and eventually found midfielder Jean Michael Seri in space on the edge of the box, but he curled wide.
The big danger moment in the first half came five minutes from time when a Hull player was tripped in a crowd of Town players, giving the hosts a well-placed free kick on the edge of the box. However, they turned down the chance to shoot and tried to clip it into the box, where Nakayama was fouled to alleviate the pressure.
Another set piece led to a close call in the 46th minute, with Helik tripping Delap. This time they clipped a clever reverse ball into the box for Tufan, who hadn’t been tracked by Thomas, but his ball across the box was missed by everyone in the middle and drifted wide.
Hull switched from a back three to a 4-4-2 on the hour mark as the Terriers continued to frustrate them and created another chance in the 67th minute while Town were down to 10 men as Thomas received treatment. A clearance from Nakayama fell fortuitously to Delap, and he advanced to the dead ball line before pulling it back to Scott Twice, but his first-time effort was comfortably wide of the near post.
Nicholls tipped a Tufan header from a narrow angle over his crossbar and got a strong hand to a low cross from Morton as Hull started to put more and more balls into the box, and he had to bravely dive at the feet of Tufan soon after – albeit the Hull man was being flagged for offside.
Delap went as close as he had done to breaking the deadlock in the 82nd minute, leaping well to connect with Tufan’s cross and cannoning a header against the crossbar. The ball looped into the air, and Pearson did remarkably well to win the second header with Nicholls stranded.
The fourth official signaled nine minutes added, and it was heartbreak for Town in the second. Substitute Vinagre delivered a ball into the box that seemed to hit the shins of Philogene and ricochet into the path of Delap, who hit an instinctive first-time shot past Nicholls’ left side and into the corner.
