Huddersfield Town 3-2 Blackburn Rovers: Danny Ward double earns Terriers thrilling win

Danny WardImage source, PA Media
Image caption,

Danny Ward took his goal tally for the season to three

Danny Ward's double helped Huddersfield Town end Blackburn Rovers' five-match unbeaten run after a pulsating second half at the John Smith's Stadium.

Alex Vallejo hit a first-time shot into the bottom corner to give Town a deserved half-time lead.

Joe Rothwell's slaloming 40-yard run teed up Ben Brereton Diaz to level from close range, but Ward's powerful header quickly restored Town's lead.

Brereton Diaz stroked in a hotly-disputed penalty, but Ward headed in unmarked to win it late on.

Rovers kicked off as the team in form, unbeaten in five and fresh from a 5-1 rout of Cardiff, while Town's good start to the season had dipped with three defeats in their past four.

But the hosts bossed much of the first half as Danel Sinani blazed over after just two minutes when found well placed by Thomas, and Lewis O'Brien smacked a fierce drive against the post, before Vallejo's first Huddersfield goal after good work from Sorba Thomas.

Blackburn, who had scored nine times in their previous four starts, had created little, but responded well and went close shortly before half-time when Town goalkeeper Lee Nicholls made a flying save to keep out Brereton Diaz's header.

Both teams went on the attack and produced a thrilling second half, and Brereton Diaz looked to have rescued a point with an eight-minute brace either side of Ward's downward header.

Town felt aggrieved by Brereton Diaz's penalty, for what looked a 50-50 challenge between Naby Sarr and the in-form Chile striker, but salvation came late on as Ollie Turton's flick gave Ward a free header.

Huddersfield stay seventh but moved level on points with Blackburn, who remain sixth on goal difference.

Huddersfield boss Carlos Corberan told BBC Radio Leeds:

"The team today has shown a very good personality and an intensity to attack.

"When you score again and they draw (level) again you have to have a lot of personality to go again and I feel very proud of my players today for this character and confidence in themselves.

"The most important thing today was to show that we are an important group of players, that we have a real team, and if I don't have an important player, I have other important players who are ready to compete at the level they have shown today."

Blackburn manager Tony Mowbray told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"I think the spirit of the team is there to see, the ability to fight back into the game.

"We're obviously hugely disappointed with the goals we lost - it was not like our team to lose those sort of goals, two very simple balls into the box.

"It was a much-changed defence and I'm trying not to apportion too much blame. I thought the team fought really hard."

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