Huddersfield Town 2-0 Sheffield Wednesday: Terriers beat Owls in Yorkshire derby
- Published
Josh Koroma (above) and Isaac Mbenza both scored inside the first 24 minutes at John Smith's Stadium
Huddersfield Town brought an end to their dreadful recent home derby record against Sheffield Wednesday as they beat the Championship's bottom club.
Two goals inside the opening 24 minutes from Josh Koroma and Isasac Mbenza set the Terriers on their way.
Huddersfield's victory made it three consecutive home league wins for the first time since February 2017 - and to emphasise the impressiveness of that result they did it on the back of a horrendous home record against the Owls over the last decade.
In the Owls' most recent eight visits to this corner of West Yorkshire, Huddersfield had failed even to score, losing seven of those eight games.
Anthony Pilkington was the last Terriers player to score a home goal against the Owls in this fixture, netting the only goal in a 1-0 win in January 2011.
Almost 10 years on, it took just 11 minutes to put that right as Fraizer Campbell's dummy freed Koroma, whose left-foot shot from the centre of the box found the bottom right corner.
The Terriers then doubled their lead from a free-kick awarded for Liam Palmer's trip on Koroma - and Mbenza's right foot found the top-left corner.
That proved to be the last of the only two efforts Huddersfield had on target all night - one more than new Wednesday boss Tony Pulis witnessed for his Owls.
Huddersfield's first win over Wednesday in 12 derby meetings left Pulis still waiting for his first win six games into his reign.
But the hosts, who could even afford to miss a second-half penalty by Juninho Bacuna, were off and running from the moment they went ahead with Koroma's fifth goal in eight games.
Campbell's step-over left Koroma up against a flat-footed Dominic Iorfa and he burst past the Wednesday defender to shoot across goal and find the corner from 10 yards.
Mbenza's curling 20-yard free-kick then doubled their lead as Joe Wildsmith got a hand to it but could only help it into his top-right corner.
The hosts then squandered their chance of a three-goal cushion four minutes into the second half when Iorfa brought down Bacuna but the Town substitute's poor penalty hit the outside of Wildsmith's right-hand post.
The Owls, still four points adrift of safety, now face another derby this Saturday, an all-south Yorkshire affair with fellow strugglers Barnsley.
Huddersfield, who are now just four points off a play-off place in 12th, face a long trip to new Championship leaders Bournemouth.
Huddersfield Town head coach Carlos Corberan told BBC Radio Leeds:
"The start of the game was really good. We started to control the game from the back.
"We created some chances and scored a couple of goals. After that, the team lost a bit of control.
"We know how difficult it is to win two games in a row in the Championship, but at the same time I have high expectations of our players."
Sheffield Wednesday boss Tony Pulis told BBC Radio Sheffield:
"First 20 minutes we were all over the place. That's the worst 20 minutes I've had since coming here.
"If you give them a 2-0 start it's uphill all the way. We showed more commitment second half without showing any real quality.
"The lads looked for the first 20 minutes really, really tired. Whatever we were doing, they were on the front foot. I don't want to make excuses. I just thought we were awful in that first 20 minutes.
"I spoke to a lot of people before I took the job. I knew what I was getting myself in for. It's a massive club, but it's going to be tough."