Hull City vs Huddersfield Town; Sky Bet Championship
Hull City vs Huddersfield Town. Sky Bet Championship.
MKM StadiumAttendance12,764.
Hull City 0-1 Huddersfield: Harry Toffolo winner gets Terriers' promotion push back on track
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Hull City and Huddersfield at the MKM Stadium as Harry Toffolo's late tap-in earned Carlos Corberan's Terriers three important points in their quest for promotion
Saturday 2 April 2022 07:02, UK
Huddersfield's promotion push regained momentum as they made a winning return from the international break with a 1-0 victory over 10-man Hull.
The Tigers started well but their hopes of taking anything from the game were hit when striker Tom Eaves was sent off after two cheap bookings in the first half.
Although it took 23 attempts, Carlos Corberan's men finally made the breakthrough with 11 minutes to play, when Harry Toffolo followed the ball in after goalkeeper Matt Ingram had tipped Tom Lees' towering header into his path.
As a result, Huddersfield leapfrog Luton back into third in the Championship table, three points behind second-placed Bournemouth, though they have played four games more.
Hull's sixth straight defeat at the MKM Stadium equals a club record set between September and November 1992 under Terry Dolan and keeps them 20th.
Huddersfield's ideal return from the international break
Given Hull's poor recent form on home soil, their promising start was no doubt encouraging for boss Shota Arveladze, who watched on as a wicked free-kick from Keane Lewis-Potter was smartly tipped away from danger by Lee Nicholls inside the first 10 minutes.
Huddersfield did grow into the game, but their build-up play lacked intensity throughout the first half, which allowed Hull to regroup and successfully keep the influence of Jordan Rhodes - Danny Ward's stand-in in attack - to a minimum.
It took until first-half stoppage time for the game to explode into life - and for all the wrong reasons. The visitors were first denied a penalty when Jacob Greaves appeared to help the ball behind with his right arm, before Hull were reduced to 10 men after Eaves collected a needless second booking for a foul on Lewis O'Brien.
And from the resulting free-kick, delivered by Sorba Thomas, Ollie Turton was somehow only able to glance a header past the far post.
The Terriers set out to attack from the outset after the break, given their one-man advantage and came close to taking the lead when only a marvellous diving save from Ingram prevented Josh Koroma's low drive from nestling in the bottom right corner.
Referee Jeremy Simpson then denied them what looked to be a clear penalty, when he deemed Richie Smallwood's foul on Koroma to have taken place on the very edge of the box, despite replays suggesting the contact came inside.
Just when it looked as though Huddersfield would have to start to think about settling for a point, they struck, as a long ball was flicked on by Lees, and pushed away by Ingram, but only towards the far post, where Toffolo was on hand to slot home - and then celebrate once he knew he had not strayed offside.
As nerves crept in for the visitors, Hull mustered one final chance in the closing seconds, but Allahyar Sayyadmanesh could only head across the face of goal and past the right-hand post.
Man of the match - Harry Toffolo
Harry Toffolo is used to assisting goals more often than he scores them and few will be as important as the one he scored at the MKM, which cemented Huddersfield's position in the play-offs and kept them in with a faint top-two shout, too.
What the managers said...
Hull's Shota Arveladze: "We should have got more than we did today, I think. I would not take anything from the opponent or the chances they created, but we also did well and showed our strengths as well.
"With 10 men, it's not easy, but we still kept going, stayed in the game and created two or three chances to equalise. Unfortunately, after this good game, we didn't get much today."
Huddersfield's Carlos Corberan: "That was a very important result because when you arrive to play the game after two defeats, it is very important to recover a positive dynamic to stop any type of negative thought. Today was one game with many challenges.
"For me, one of our strengths as a team is the level of togetherness and the level of competitive mentality in the players. The belief and the confidence in the players that they could get the result helped us tonight to achieve the three points."
What's next?
Hull are back in action at 3pm on Saturday April 9, when they travel to the Riverside Stadium to face Middlesbrough, while Huddersfield host Luton at the John Smith's Stadium at 7.45pm on Monday April 11, live on Sky Sports Football.
