Huddersfield Town 0-0 Bristol City: Terriers earn battling point in fight against relegation
- Published
- comments
Neil Warnock's Huddersfield Town survived a first-half onslaught from Bristol City to earn a battling point in their fight against relegation from the Championship.
The Robins created several good chances in the opening 45 minutes, with the hosts indebted to goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik, who made a string of saves to keep it goalless.
Huddersfield failed to register a shot on target in the first half but improved after the break, with substitute Josh Koroma flashing a shot narrowly wide on 67 minutes.
They went close to pinching a winner late on when a corner was almost bundled in only for Andi Weimann to clear it off the line.
The point moves Huddersfield up one place to 23rd but they remain deep in relegation trouble, six points from safety, while Bristol City also move up a place into 13th.
Vaclik was straight into the action to smother a through ball to Nahki Wells, before Sam Bell missed the target with a near-post flick from George Tanner's cross.
The Czech Republic goalkeeper had to be alert again to save Mark Sykes' header as the chances began to pile up and he made an outstanding stop to keep out Cameron Pring's header 10 minutes before the break.
In a rare foray the hosts earned a corner on the stroke of half-time which resulted in Jack Rudoni seeing a shot being blocked, as they finished the half without mustering an effort on target and with only 29% possession.
The second half began in similar vein with Vaclik saving from Sykes and Pring again before Huddersfield began to improve and make chances of their own, with half-time substitutes Martyn Waghorn and Koroma combining in a flowing move, with the latter dragging a shot across goal and narrowly wide.
The game became more end-to-end as both sides looked for a late winner and Vaclik prevented an own goal in the closing stages when skipper Jonathan Hogg headed dangerously towards his own net.
Huddersfield then had chances to win it themselves as Rudoni was denied twice by Robins keeper Max O'Leary and Weimann cleared off the line to ensure the spoils were shared.
Finding the back of the net continues to prove a problem for Huddersfield, who have failed to score in five of their past six games, but they will be pleased to have kept a clean sheet after conceding eight goals in their previous two matches.
Huddersfield manager Neil Warnock told BBC Radio Leeds:
"I thought the lads did really well. It's disappointing not to get the three points. We started off apprehensive and I think that's only natural after such a disappointing result [losing 4-0 to Coventry on Saturday].
"The first half an hour we were doing it too quickly but once we calmed down and got them in at half-time we said to them 'I think we can win it' and the crowd were getting behind us as well.
"I can't fault it and I thought there were some good performances tonight.
"If we don't make elementary mistakes we haven't got a bad side, it's just when we make mistakes like we did on Saturday we look like an amateur team, so we've got to get out of that and I think we can give these top teams a game now. We've got to make our own luck now."
Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson told BBC Radio Bristol:
"[It was] a game we should win. We created chances but we're struggling to convert chances when they come at the moment.
"I thought we were on top for the majority of the game but we put the game at risk with one or two poor decisions late on when we needed to control the game and didn't, but it's a missed opportunity for us.
"Until late on they didn't create anything of any note and we were well on top.
"It was frustrating because they are the sort of games where we've been a bit wasteful in terms of collecting points.
"We've had enough opportunities to win the game but we go another game without scoring, and that's something we need to find a solution to quite quickly. We need to start getting that clinical edge again."