Darren Moore justifies Huddersfield Town’s conservative strategy in their loss to Hull City…

 

Darren Moore supported Huddersfield’s measured strategy as Hull City overcame late goals to earn a well-earned 1-0 triumph at the MKM Stadium.

Despite spending most of the game hunkered down on the edge of their own penalty box and managing just 20% of the ball and one shot on goal, Town rarely looked dangerous inside the final third and were satisfied to send East Yorkshire home with a draw.

However, Liam Delap’s winning goal two minutes into extra time proved to be the game-winning goal in stoppage time, as City tied the top six on points heading into the two-week international break.

Moore, whose side are one place above the Sky Bet Championship relegation zone, said: “There’s always an emotional element to a result, and I can understand that. You have to strike the balance right, and we are working towards that.

“But as a group, we were working extremely hard to correct those wrongs and make them right. We created two or three half-opportunities for counter-attacks. When the chances came our way, could we have used the ball more effectively and gotten bodies up the pitch? I thought we did that really well; it was just that the opportunities that we created just didn’t come our way.”
Huddersfield at least defensively improved upon their last two away games, in which they conceded a total of eight goals. They also had City at arm’s length for most of the game, even though the hosts dominated possession and fashioned a couple of good openings.
Liam Rosenior’s men then scored the goal their efforts deserved when Delap’s low strike hit the inside of the right post and squirmed into the net after Jaden Philogene knocked down Ruben Vinagre’s cross.

 

Moore goes on, “It’s a tough one to swallow in terms of going that long into the game (without conceding)”. The Terriers have now only won once in ten games. From a performance standpoint, it was again another great team effort. We are focusing on the positives as a group; you must consider the performance as a whole.

“We have to accept what’s happened and move forward. The idea was to neutralize them in areas where we know they can attack you during a break, and I believe we succeeded in doing so to maintain the game’s equilibrium. With the exception of a few instances, I believed we kept them for long-term initiatives.