Huddersfield Town 1-0 Millwall: Terriers climb from bottom with win

Huddersfield climbed off the foot of the Championship after an impressive win over Millwall on Saturday.

The only goal came from a speculative long-range strike from Yuta Nakayama inside the first 10 minutes

It ended with four straight wins for Gary Rowett’s Lions who slipped out of the play-off places.

Fotheringham made one change with Ben Jackson recalled in place of Duane Holmes, while Rowett also made a single change with Charlie Cresswell replacing Shaun Hutchinson.

Japan international Nakayama broke the deadlock on nine minutes when he curled in a high ball from the left that beat everyone, including goalkeeper George Long, and curled into the post.

Jack Rudoni whizzed over the crossbar from just outside the area five minutes later, while Long had to deal with a shot from Etienne Camara and Nakayama’s shot from the far post was blocked as the hosts piled on the pressure in one of their best periods of the season so far. .

Long dived to hold out a drive from Holmes, who came off the bench to replace the injured Ollie Turton on the half-hour and influenced proceedings down the left. The Terriers went even closer after 38 minutes when they broke forward and Sorba Thomas got on the end of a deep cross from Holmes on the left, only to see his header come back via a combination of Long and his cross.

Andreas Voglsommer’s speculative effort just before the break was the first real action for Town keeper Lee Nicholls to deal with, while on the break Long made a meal of a Nakayama cross and the ball had to be hacked free.

After a stop-and-go start for the first 20 minutes of the second half, Holmes drove forward before sliding in Danny Ward who sent his first-time shot just wide.

Holmes saw frantic appeals for a penalty turned down before Rudoni put a long-range effort over the bar and Ward saw another effort wide after a good run from Rudoni.

Nicholls had to be alert to deny Tyler Burey at the end of a frenzied run in the dying moments, while the Terriers held out for eight minutes of added time before the full-time whistle.

Huddersfield head coach Mark Fotheringham told the club’s social media team:

“I’m very proud of the lads. They’ve worked so hard all week and today and they’ve given our fans a performance to be proud of. We’ve got to build from clean sheets and there’s three in my spell here now. .

“I thought the back four was very solid and our young guys – like Etienne Camara and Ben Jackson – were really going to be counted.”

“We’ve never lost confidence at any point. You don’t score three at Luton, beat Hull or get a point at Middlesbrough unless you’re a good team. I kept reinforcing that with the players.”

Millwall manager Gary Rowett told BBC Radio London:

“It was one of those games where we didn’t really have the spark we needed. They started quite brightly, on the front foot, as you would imagine a team fighting for their lives at home is going to do.

“They certainly had a bit of luck with the goal – I think it’s a cross that went into the far corner. That kind of fortune is enough for you to sit inside and allow yourself to counter, which they did well.

“It was a difficult game for us and at those points we need to show a bit more quality. I don’t think we had enough attacking moments in the second half where we made it count.”