Huddersfield Town boosted their survival hopes with a 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest at the City Ground, as the Terriers punished two sloppy pieces of play from the Reds. James Edginton reports
Nottingham Forest had been enjoying a decent run of form as they looked to end the season strongly, and the Reds went into this match looking to extend their unbeaten run to five games. In contrast, Huddersfield desperately needed a win to extend the gap between them and the relegation zone.
Chris Hughton started with the same side that drew 0-0 with Bristol City.
Huddersfield had won just one of their last 15 away matches. Forest made the better start and it looked as though it would be another miserable away day for Huddersfield.
In fact, had Filip Krovinović had brought his shooting boots, he could have scored a hattrick within the opening 10 minutes of the match, but one effort was fired over the crossbar, another was saved and a third blocked.
Lewis Grabban also had a chance to break the deadlock, but he fired his volley well wide just before the half hour mark. However, Forest failed to capitalise on their bright start and soon they began to drop their intensity levels, offering Huddersfield a route into the game.
The Terriers took this opportunity and soon began to create opportunities, with Brice Samba being called upon to make two big saves, firstly to deny Aaron Rowe and secondly to thwart Duane Holmes.
The game looked set to be goalless at the break, but Huddersfield were rewarded for their tenaciousness by a mistake from the normally impeccable, James Garner, with Rowe pouncing on his stray pass to give the visitors the lead.
It was somewhat typical of Forest’s season as the Reds have too often, this campaign, failed to make the most of their domination and possession.
Nottingham Forest failed to muster a response throughout the second half and Huddersfield doubled their lead just pass the hour, with Juninho Bacuna scoring with a fierce drive past Brice Samba.
The closest Forest came to pulling a goal back was when Scott McKenna saw his header palmed away by the goalkeeper in the 73rd minute and when substitute Glenn Murray drove his shot wide late on.
But there was no way through for Forest, who succumbed to a disappointing defeat and are still not completely safe from the relegation places.
Hughton said: “It was a hard day and we are really disappointed, particularly after our last home performance. I was hoping that we could replicate that and in the first 20 minutes I thought we did, we had a lot of the ball and we dominated. There were three good chances in that period and probably the result sums up a little bit of how we have been.
“We have found it difficult to get the goals and what we have become is a more resolute team, haven’t conceded and haven’t made those mistakes. I thought we made two mistakes for the goals, which hasn’t been like us, and if we have made them then the opposition maybe haven’t capitalised on them like they did today.
“We needed to show more, having gone behind, to get back into the game and it wasn’t our day today, we didn’t show enough.”
