Huddersfield Town recorded a vital late win away to Hull City last night as Steve Mounie’s last-minute strike sealed a 2-1 victory.
The Terriers headed into the game flirting with the relegation zone after slipping down the table in recent months. However, the spirits at the John Smith’s Stadium had been lifted in January with a string of very shrew signings coupled with a solid 0-0 draw against high-flying Brentford.
They faced a Hull City side currently struggling for confidence after their back-to-back league defeats and off the back of an FA Cup defeat to Chelsea on Saturday evening.
The Terriers got off to a strong start in the first-half as Karlan Grant opened the scoring with a deflected effort before Richard Stearman diverted into his own goal just after the hour mark. However, with barely any time left on the clock, Steve Mounie headed in a 96th-minute winner for the visitors to lift them to six points clear of the relegation zone.
Here, we take a look at three things we learnt about the Terriers in their late win over the Tigers…
They’re grinding out results
Not many will have expected Huddersfield to have taken four points from their last two games against Brentford and then travelling to the KCOM Stadium to face Hull, but they have shown great character to battle for some much-needed points on the board.
After the draw to Brentford, Huddersfield still remained a bit too close to comfort to the relegation zone and a win against Hull will have put minds at rest much more.
A major factor in how they have managed to grind out these results is the smart signings made by Danny Cowley throughout this month, who all featured again on Tuesday night. While Stearman made matters more difficult with an own goal, it would be unjust not to highlight the defensive performance to keep out some of the most potent attackers in the league on their day, with Jarrod Bowen and Kamil Grosicki limited to virtually nothing.
Karlan Grant could be hitting form again
Coming in from the left, Grant has looked extremely dangerous this season under Cowley but has dried up of late, not scoring before tonight since the 14th December against Wigan Athletic.
Having received the ball out wide from Juninho Bacuna, Grant cut inside past Robbie McKenzie before curling into the far post, thanks to a minor deflection, giving the Terriers the lead.
Just like Hull often turn to Bowen, Huddersfield see Grant’s goals as a consistent flow that can help win them results when not playing well. He hit a dry spell in the last month and has now ended that and Cowley will be hoping that he can kick on and fire the Terriers up the table and away from the relegation zone, especially with the added service of Emile Smith-Rowe.
Do you know where these former Huddersfield players are now?
Should they keep Mounie?
The January transfer window has given Cowley the chance to assess his squad for the first time since taking over and potentially move players on that might need a transfer away, such as Terence Kongolo moving to Fulham.
Steve Mounie has been another player who has struggled since the club dropped into the Championship, but he is starting to hit form with four league goals in his last six appearances.
There is no doubt that Mounie will be on a wage that doesn’t match up with a side that are currently battling against relegation, but he has the quality to help shoulder the burden that Grant is taking up at the moment.