Team: Smithies, Onuoha, Caulker, Hall, Bidwell, Henry (Borysiuk), Luongo, Cousins, Chery, Shodipo (Sylla), Washington (Polter)
Subs Not Used: Ingram, Lynch, Wszolek, El Khayati
Attendance: 20,595 (including 732 R’s fans)
Do not let the close score line fool you. For well over the first three quarters of this encounter we were virtually hardly ever in the match. Punch-less, sterile, blunt, you name it!
In the opening 45 minutes the highlight of our feeble forays was a half-baked shot and there was not very much else thereafter either.
Although Huddersfield did appear to lack the killer instinct they were slicker than us, and their movement was superior. They were so obviously the better side and are not top of the division for nothing.
They tore us apart for their first goal and did likewise quite early on after the interval to secure a deserved 2-0 lead. It could have been worse because a third goal was ruled out following a marginal infringement.
Seb Polter was on as substitute after half-time but (surprise surprise!) we were still playing with one recognised striker.
By some miracle we scored a goal on 76 minutes. It was a decent header by Idrissa Sylla. Dozens of the 700 plus contingent missed this goal. They had already left the stadium in disgust. I felt like joining them.
During the final 15 minutes for some strange reason, Huddersfield started to panic a bit and withdrew into a defensive shell. This allowed Rangers to send men and the ball forward, and hopes were raised when there were a few half-chances from late free kicks and corners.
I have to say though that had Rangers somehow fluked an equaliser it would have been the biggest case of daylight robbery since Dick Turpin held up all those stagecoaches.
Where do we go from here? Quo Vadis indeed.
Bernard Lambert (Kerrins)
Huddersfield Town remain two points clear at the top of the Championship after defeating Queen’s Park Rangers.
Kasey Palmer put Huddersfield in front when he headed Rajiv van La Parra’s cross in from close range, as the home side had the best of the first-half.
The Terriers continued their dominance after the break and extended their lead when Elias Kachunga headed in Tommy Smith’s perfectly delivered cross.
Idrissa Sylla’s headed QPR goal ensured a tense finish, but Town held on.
The Terriers recovered from their first defeat of the season on Tuesday with a controlled performance that could have seen them win by a bigger margin.
The impressive Palmer settled any nerves Town may have had as his great movement created the space he needed to find himself unmarked in the six-yard box as Van La Parra’s ball came in.
Kachunga headed over soon after the start of the second-half, and Town felt they should have had a penalty when the ball appeared to hit Grant Hall’s hand in the box after 57 minutes.
But it was immaterial as just two minutes later Kachunga, who is on loan from Bundesliga side FC Ingolstadt, headed in the second.
QPR ‘s lack of chances will concern boss Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink whose side that lost 6-0 at home to Newcastle in midweek.
Olamide Shodipo had their first proper chance soon after Town’s second goal, before Sylla found space in the Town box to convert Tjaronn Chery’s cross while Huddersfield were temporarily down to 10 men with Tommy Smith off following a head injury.
Huddersfield Town boss David Wagner: “It was a great reaction by the group after Brighton. Our one target was to bounce back with the right result.”
“This was a huge, massive result for us with a performance that was brilliant, fantastic, great. I don’t have vocabulary to describe it. I cannot say how happy I am.”
QPR boss Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink: “We need to lift ourselves and it is only us who can fix it. The group is good and there is no problem for us. What we need to do is go back to base number one and work from there.”
“If we had got back to 2-2, even with bad play, it would have been a point. Going forward we must help each other. That is what we need to do now.”
BBC Sport
Well done our Up North representative for the report.
With the way we are playing our away support will be dwindling before the game starts and I wouldn’t blame them.
No imagination or flare (at JFH’s request?)
The time for change is long overdue.
Colin as I have mentioned to you before Huddersfield have obviously been shopping for their players in more upmarket Car Boot/jumble sales than us…and it showed.
Its not easy but you CAN get decent quality Championship players on a very low budget and Huddersfield are a perfect example of this…so too was Neil Warnock when he first Joined QPR FC all those years ago.