Huddersfield Town 2-0 Hull City: Terriers earn welcome win against fellow strugglers
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Michal Helik's close-range header was his first goal for Huddersfield since his Deadline Day move from Barnsley
Mark Fotheringham marked his first home game in charge of Huddersfield Town with a first win as they beat fellow strugglers Hull City.
Lewie Coyle headed Etienne Camara's cross past his own goalkeeper to put the Terriers ahead before Ryan Longman missed a great chance to equalise in first-half stoppage time.
Michal Helik headed in Town's second shortly after the break and Jordan Rhodes went close to a third as he hit the post.
Manager-less Hull's Colombian top scorer Oscar Estupinan missed an excellent chance from 12 yards with 18 minutes left as they lost for the sixth time in seven games.
Huddersfield's victory - just their second since mid-August - sees them remain second-from-bottom of the Championship, but now only two points from safety, while Hull stay 20th, three points above their opponents.
Having replaced Danny Schofield as head coach last month, Fotheringham's first victory came at the third attempt - and made him the first new Huddersfield boss in seven to win his opening home game.
Defeat was a further blow for a Hull side under the temporary leadership of Andy Dawson after a deal to bring former Olympiakos boss Pedro Martins to Humberside to replace Shota Arveladze fell through on Friday.
Tom Lees' 13th-minute volley into the arms of Hull keeper Nathan Baxter was the highlight of a quiet start and the Huddersfield defender failed to turn in a corner that came to him eight minutes later.
The Terriers finally took a deserved lead after half an hour as Cyrus Christie lost the ball deep in his own half and Camara broke into the penalty area before whipping a left-footed cross into the six-yard box that Coyle could only glance past Baxter.
Mark Fotheringham was most recently assistant manager at Hertha Berlin before taking over at Huddersfield
Hull struggled to create much until the final moments of the half when Longman had a goal-bound effort from the edge of the box well blocked by Helik, and then rolled an excellent chance wide in stoppage time after being put through by Coyle's excellent curling pass.
Hull made an attacking change at half-time as Dogukan Sinik repaced Callum Elder, but it was Town who started the second period brightly.
Rhodes had an effort hacked away by Coyle, and Ben Jackson had a penalty claim turned down before Helik headed home Danny Ward's cross from close range after Sorba Thomas' floated free-kick into the Hull area was not cleared.
It should have been 3-0 when Rhodes' 62nd-minute strike was touched onto the post by Baxter and follow-up efforts from Lees and Helik were cleared off the line by Hull defenders.
Estupinan - the Championship's top scorer with eight goals this season - should have got his ninth when he blazed over from Greg Docherty's pass in a moment that summed up the Tigers' afternoon, while Docherty had a powerful effort parried over by Lee Nicholls shortly after.
Huddersfield head coach Mark Fotheringham:
"I wasn't satisfied with our first-half performance and I know we will play much better than that in the future.
"I gave a couple of players a volley at half-time and they were much better in the second half.
"That's my job. I'm not here to be the guys' friend. I'm here to win games, we need to win games and we're going to win games.
"I can only influence what's happening on the training pitch. I've had eight sessions with them and you're really starting to see my identity of what I'm looking for for this team."
Hull interim boss Andy Dawson:
"I thought we lacked intensity. We didn't work the keeper enough. We had four shots over the bar. They're the little things we need to do better.
(On the own goal) "If you're in an area to defend - if you're not sure what's behind you and it's a good ball, then you have to try and affect it.
"You have to get in the flight path and get first contact because if he leaves it and it's tapped in behind him then you're asking a different question. I can't blame Coyley for that. These things happen, that's football.
"It's the second goal that's really disappointing because I believed we would score a goal and we had some fantastic chances to score."