Huddersfield Town vs Peterborough United. Sky Bet Championship.
The John Smith's StadiumAttendance16,023.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Huddersfield and Peterborough at the John Smith's Stadium as two goals from Tom Lees and one from Danel Sinani helped Carlos Corberan's Terriers into the automatic promotion places
Saturday 5 March 2022 11:09, UK
Huddersfield moved into the Sky Bet Championship's top two after extending their unbeaten run to an 18th game with a routine 3-0 home victory over Peterborough.
Centre-back Tom Lees' headed double secured three points for the Terriers after midfielder Danel Sinani's sixth goal of the season had opened the scoring.
The victory sees Huddersfield go a point ahead of third-placed Bournemouth, although they have now played five games more than the Cherries.
Struggling Peterborough, meanwhile, remain bottom of the table, having taken just two points from a possible 36.
Earlier, David Cornell had earned a late call-up in the visitors' goal after Steven Benda pulled out due to illness during the warm-up and he subsequently picked the ball out of his net twice within the opening seven minutes.
Called into quick action to parry a Sinani strike, Cornell was powerless to prevent the Luxembourg international from finding his top-right corner from 20 yards after the ball had broken back to him following a Lewis O'Brien drive that was blocked by Jorge Grant.
The cultured third-minute effort meant Posh have not kept a clean sheet in their last 19 away contests, equalling their worst sequence since 1989.
Sinani then turned architect, swinging in a corner from the right that saw a towering Lees glance a header inside the far post from six yards.
In response, Kwame Poku's side-footed 10-yard effort brushed the side-netting following Sammie Szmodics' raid to the left byline.
But the Terriers went close to a third before the half-hour mark when Ollie Turton's edge-of-the-box drive thudded against the crossbar after looping over Cornell following a deflection off Szmodics.
Duane Holmes also shot narrowly past an upright for the hosts after ghosting by Josh Knight and Jeando Fuchs just outside the penalty area, before Joe Ward curled over a free-kick at the other end.
Peterborough demonstrated greater attacking intent after the break, with half-time replacement Jack Marriott seeing a 20-yard effort deflected off target following a positive left-wing run by Hayden Coulson.
The latter then skied over from distance, before failing to track Sorba Thomas, who should have done better when he guided a free volley at goal wide from Harry Toffolo's cross.
Huddersfield's Carlos Corberan: "The team performed in a really serious way with a lot of maturity, determination and intensity from the very first minutes. We controlled the game well and our supporters needed to know we had the right mentality to win the game.
"The players know that in the Championship you never face anybody who won't present a challenge and you always have to have the right mentality. Teams near the bottom also have even more motivation to beat us and we gave everything to get the result we needed."
Peterborough's Grant McCann: "The start was obviously poor to be 2-0 down within seven minutes and the first 20 minutes were nowhere near good enough. We lost every first ball and second ball and they were more energetic and aggressive. We then made an early change to be more protective of the back three and, after that, we were better, but it was too late by then. There's lots and lots of work with this group to find a killing edge at the top end of the pitch where we're a bit safe in our play, but that sort of stuff takes time on the training ground and I'm looking forward to that work.
"Confidence is a big thing in football and, when you're losing games, it plays on your mind and you don't take risks at that top end, but I want my team to play with an edge and try to beat players. We were also a little bit shy in terms of coming into contact with people but, in the second half, we were better without really threatening too much."
