Huddersfield Town vs Reading. Sky Bet Championship.
The John Smith's StadiumAttendance21,847.
Report and highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash at the John Smith's Stadium
Saturday 24 August 2019 18:44, UK
Managerless Huddersfield's winless run in all competitions stretched to 16 games as they lost 2-0 at home to Reading.
Second-half goals from Ovie Ejaria and Michael Morrison sealed a first away win of the season for the Royals and ensured another miserable result for the Terriers in their first home game since sacking Jan Siewert last week.
Huddersfield, relegated from the top flight last season, have won just once in the whole of 2019 and have taken just seven league points since January 1.
Despite their woeful run of form the hosts started brightly and at a high tempo.
Midfielder Alex Pritchard tried his luck from distance but saw his daisy-cutter go just wide of goal.
Reading were almost given a gift shortly after when home goalkeeper Kamil Grabara underhit a pass to one of his defenders, but the Liverpool loanee just about recovered and snuffed out the lurking Lucas Joao.
Town skipper Christopher Schindler then glanced a header wide when he rose highest to meet a Rajiv van La Parra corner.
The game suddenly came to life just before half-time when Trevoh Chalobah blasted a shot just wide of the Reading goal.
Then down the other end, Joao tried his luck from outside the box and forced a fine save from Grabara - the first shot on target.
Huddersfield's top scorer Karlan Grant saw a stinging shot kept out by Reading stopper Rafa Cabral before the visitors almost made the breakthrough with two quickfire attempts.
First, Andy Yiadom saw his effort take a deflection and come back off the crossbar, then Grabara pulled off a fine save to keep out Lucas Boye's goal-bound, close-range shot.
Pritchard brought a fine, flying save from Cabral just before the hour as the hosts upped the ante.
But despite their toil, it was a familiar tale for Huddersfield as they conceded limply on 71 minutes. Ejaria exchanged passes with John Swift and found the bottom-left corner of the goal from just inside the box.
It could have got worse for the beleaguered Terriers when the impressive Swift then marched forward and saw an attempt deflected just wide of goal.
It was looking like a matter of when, not if, Reading would double their advantage and it duly arrived as centre-half Morrison rose to deftly nod in from a corner - a goal that knocked the stuffing out of the hosts.
Caretaker Mark Hudson introduced speed on the wings in the form of Josh Koroma and Isaac Mbenza but the hosts' lack of confidence and ruthlessness in front of goal showed once more as they suffered yet another defeat.
Huddersfield caretaker boss Mark Hudson: "It's a fitness issue - we've not worked hard enough. It's not good enough but we are where we are. We need to get fitter, better and stronger. It's not about training for two-and-a-half hours on the grass every day. It's about being specific in what we do and putting our stamp on things and working on stuff that we do, such as the high intensity."
"The players put in on the pitch what I asked of them and you could see a clear improvement. But we hit the target twice out of 11 shots and that's not good enough. We need to continue to play that way, but do it for 90 to 95 minutes."
Jose Gomes: "The victories always feel good. We were strong and didn't allow them to shoot to our goal. In the second half, we controlled for more periods than we did in the first half.
"I'm happy with my players after a tough week. But we have taken seven points against two teams that were in the Premier League last season and West Brom, who reached the play-offs. It has been a very positive week for us and my players are giving lot of positive signs."
