Blackburn Rovers 0-0 Huddersfield Town: Hosts move into top two and extend unbeaten run to nine matches
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Reda Khadra struck the bar with the game's best effort as Blackburn's run of six straight wins ended
Blackburn moved into the automatic promotion places for the first time this season despite a goalless draw with Huddersfield at Ewood Park.
Reda Khadra smashed an early shot against the bar after being sent clear by John Buckley as the hosts started well.
The Terriers improved and were good value for a point, with Duane Holmes going closest with a diving header which forced Thomas Kaminski into a point-blank save.
Rovers almost won it late on from Joe Rothwell's corner but Sam Gallagher's header was cleared off the line by Sorba Thomas.
A late 3-2 defeat at Huddersfield at the end of September sparked Rovers' worst sequence of results this season - three losses in a winless four-match streak - but since then they have been beaten just once and won nine of 12 league matches.
Conditions were tricky after a pre-match deluge meant the kick-off was delayed to give groundstaff time to clear water from the pitch, but Rovers seemed untroubled and made a fast start, with Jan Paul van Hecke inches away from turning in a free-kick.
But Huddersfield, whose manager Carlos Corberan was absent following a positive Covid-19 test, grew into the game and limited the threat of a Blackburn side who had bagged 30 goals in 13 previous home games.
The hosts had two first-half penalty appeals turned down after Ben Brereton Diaz was sent tumbling and a Lewis Travis header back across goal struck Lewis O'Brien's arm, while Rovers boss Tony Mowbray was shown a yellow card for his protests against referee Keith Stroud's decisions.
Huddersfield almost went ahead in a tight second half as Holmes shot into the side-netting when one-on-one with Kaminski, but the visitors had to survive a late onslaught before extending their unbeaten run to six matches.
The draw ended a sequence of six successive wins by Blackburn but stretched their unbeaten league run to nine and lifted them a point above Fulham into second place, having played two matches more. Town stay sixth, six points further back.
Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray:
"I don't want to sit here and hammer the referees. I don't know what game they watch, that's all. It's embarrassing.
"Keith (Stroud)'s a pretty experienced referee and I thought he got a lot wrong today. Like us, they watch the Premier League and see the carnage going on with VAR at the moment.
"I watched the Brereton penalties. It's two penalties, never mind one. The first one, if Ben goes over because the ball goes over because the boy makes contact, it's a penalty, he can't deny it.
"Yet Ben stays on his feet. He's punished for being an honest kid who wanted to go through and ram it into the net. Hopefully he's somewhere else next week."
Huddersfield assistant coach Danny Schofield told BBC Radio Leeds:
"They are very clear in the way they play and they carried real danger in counter-attacks which is something we suffered with at times, but I think we did defend it quite well.
"Every player on the pitch put in a shift today and really worked for each other.
"I've been in football for over 20 years as a player and a coach and I honestly don't think I've experienced a group of players with such fight, spirit, togetherness and wanting to give everything.
"Over the Christmas period when the games are really close, it's important to put a run together and we've won three on the bounce and then drew today so overall we'd have definitely taken that."