Middlesbrough 2-1 Huddersfield Town: Boro hang on to beat Terriers
- Published
Ashley Fletcher's penalty earned Middlesbrough their first win in six games
Middlesbrough hung on despite Paddy McNair's late red card as they revived their faltering Championship play-off bid by coming from behind to beat struggling Huddersfield.
Isaac Mbenza whipped home a brilliant 25-yard free-kick to give the Terriers the lead but Duncan Watmore beat two defenders to curl in an equally exquisite equaliser.
Ashley Fletcher completed the first-half turnaround, squeezing a penalty underneath Ryan Schofield after Lewis O'Brien had caught Boro full-back Darnell Fisher in the box.
McNair's harsh dismissal for a tackle on Juninho Bacuna nine minutes from time sparked a late rally from the visitors and Kieran Phillips almost salvaged a point, hitting the post from 12 yards.
Ultimately, however, it was an eighth game without a win for Carlos Corberan's Huddersfield, who have picked up just two points from a possible 24 and have now lost 23 points from leading positions this season.
That sorry sequence has left them nervously looking over their shoulders in 19th, just five points above the relegation zone and having played more games than all of the sides below them.
The first-half withdrawal of goalscorer Mbenza with a groin injury will add to their woes as he joins leading marksman Josh Koroma among a number of key Terriers players in the treatment room.
Huddersfield looked short of ideas after his departure on the half-hour, although substitute Phillips impressed with a glancing header thwarted by Marcus Bettinelli before striking the upright late on.
Boro, meanwhile, stay eighth, but keep in touch with the top six after avoiding a fifth straight home defeat, their first win in six leaving them three points off sixth-placed Bournemouth who play Rotherham on Wednesday.
Watmore again shone with his sixth strike in 16 appearances since joining in November, while Fletcher netted his first Championship goal of an injury-hit season with an albeit unconvincing spot-kick.
Reaction - Boro 'showed character'
Boro boss Neil Warnock told BBC Tees:
"I was really proud of them tonight, the way they hung in there after a lot of adversity the last few weeks. They all gave it everything, bodies on the line, seeing it out. Everybody rolls their sleeves up and it makes you really proud as a manager. We showed a lot of character.
"Once again we were very unfortunate [with the red card] and it wasn't the referee - you could see the referee wasn't going to send Paddy off, but the linesman interfered and he's given it. How can he give a sending-off from 30 yards away?
"The first 10 minutes were a little bit sticky because we haven't played that system and it took us a little while to get adjusted.
"But after that we dominated the rest of the game - we should have put it to bed, it should have been over by half-time but as always we don't take them and it's a nail-biter."
Huddersfield head coach Carlos Corberan to BBC Radio Leeds:
"We started the game well, playing more in the offensive half until we scored the goal - but after we scored the goal they started to increase their mobility in the middle of the pitch.
"We couldn't win the second balls and the game started to be played in our half of the pitch.
"I think in the second half we adapted well and the team started to create the chances we should create to win the game - I think we have to win the second half but we didn't.
"We weren't organised from minute 15 to minute 45 and in that moment we conceded two goals that put us in trouble."