Huddersfield Town edged a tight but competitive game in West Yorkshire coming up against a Preston North End side who continued to struggle at the bottom of the Sky Bet Championship losing the first three of their competitive games. A freak goal as far as Sep Van Den Berg was concerned, separated both sides in a vital six pointer considering the start of both teams.
With an important game for both sides on the agenda, a real midfield battle was to be seen in the early stages with neither side controlling possession. Good play in the opening stages from Scott High was fascinating viewing as he drilled a lovely pass to Sorba Thomas. He found Lewis O'Brien with the midfielder being tripped winning a free kick on the left.
Thomas a player on the up in a Terriers shirt would enjoy some good work in the 19th minute winning his side a corner after a positive drive forward down the left. His deep delivery finding Levi Colwill but the centre back fell backwards as he connected with the header and the ball drifted wide.
Both teams went into the break level pegging as Town were forced to make a change upfront Fraizer Campbell replacing Danny Ward at the top of the park. With Town piling on the pressure for the goal that would put them ahead O'Brien and Thomas combined in the 62nd minute to set Josh Koroma away down the left edge of the penalty area, with nobody on hand to convert his excellent low cross.
O'Brien was replaced 20 minutes before normal time, Duane Holmes introduced to make a quick impact. That change didn't take long to make a difference as the Terriers put themselves in front on the 74th minute mark taking the lead as Koroma put Holmes through and in trying to keep the ball out, Van Den Berg scored an own goal.
Town did enforce their final change as Tom Lees went off for Alex Vallejo with Thomas hitting the woodwork late on as he turned inside before shooting but the West Yorkshire held on for a vital three points ahead of their trip to Bramall Lane on Saturday afternoon.
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Match statistics
The match was more or less even, both teams having the fair possession of the ball. Huddersfield tried to find a foothold in the contest during the 90 minutes and had 8 shots on goal during the game compared to Preston's 8, with no shot on target to the visitors’ 2.
The possession count for the Terriers was lower with a 47% to 53% ratio at the John Smith Stadium. The total pass count for Town was 375 to Preston's 414. The West Yorkshire side had just about the better passing accuracy of 73% to the visitors 72%.
The statistics tell us the game was a very close one, but both teams struggled to work the ‘keeper.
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Corberan needed a reaction after the Fulham loss, finally giving the fans the first win of the season
Huddersfield Town now have Sheffield United to travel to at Bramall Lane on Saturday afternoon, the Terriers boss spoke after the important three points gained, he said:
"I think we wanted to react today because after one defeat, the other day against Fulham it was very important today, we competed really well in the game, sometimes when you have one defeat like that one, it can affect the insecurity and confidence of the players, but it will increase the competitive level of the team going forward. The team was concentrated on the moments of the game."
Josh Koroma spoke to Club TV and gave his thoughts on the fantastic win at home.
"Everyone ran their socks off, this is the beautiful thing about the Championship the games come thick and fast so it's a great feeling that we got the result today. Everyone just thought we need to do it for the fans, they have never stopped singing, they gave us that extra push, you just want to run for them and work for them since they are always singing."