Middlesbrough 1-1 Huddersfield Town: Sides earn first Championship points
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Dael Fry's own goal two minutes after half-time gave Huddersfield a lead they could not hold onto
Middlesbrough and Huddersfield Town both earned their first point of the Championship season in a 1-1 draw at the Riverside Stadium.
Hayden Hackney hammered in Boro's first goal of the campaign to rescue a point for his side, levelling after Dael Fry had given the Terriers the lead by turning Sorba Thomas' corner into his own net two minutes into the second half.
Huddersfield went closest during a flurry of early attempts, Brahima Diarra hitting a post from Thomas' testing delivery.
Samuel Silvera could have won the game for Michael Carrick's side in second-half added time, sending a shot over the crossbar when Isaiah Jones provided the winger with a presentable chance as part of a counter-attack.
Emmanuel Latte Lath, who joined Boro from Italian club Atalanta on Tuesday, dragged an early shot wide on his first start for the club, and left-back Lukas Engel also made his full debut following his arrival from Danish Superliga side Silkeborg.
Home goalkeeper Seny Dieng denied Josh Koroma and Matty Pearson during the first half, and Marcus Forss repeatedly went close on a busy afternoon for Lee Nicholls in the Town goal.
Nicholls prevented Hackney from scoring earlier and watched a Silvera shot bend wide early on as Boro played for the first time since the departure of Chuba Akpom - their top scorer with 29 goals in all competitions last season - to Ajax for a reported £12.2m.
Jonathan Hogg threatened to make it 2-0 shortly after the breakthrough, but the midfielder was relieved when his mistake gave Silvera an opportunity the summer signing spurned to draw the hosts level earlier.
Middlesbrough are second-bottom of the table after three games, trailing Rotherham United, Huddersfield and Cardiff City on goal difference.
Huddersfield are at home to Norwich City next Saturday, while Boro visit West Bromwich Albion on the same day.
Middlesbrough boss Michael Carrick told BBC Radio Tees:
"I'm really proud of the players - it was a really tough game, with the way Huddersfield play and the questions they ask. I'm disappointed we haven't won the game - we felt we deserved it and we had chances, certainly. We could have made it a lot easier for ourselves.
"That's the way it's going at the moment. We'll deal with it, we can accept it and we'll keep doing the right things. If we keep putting the ball in the right places with the right runs, things will turn for us. I was really pleased; there were a lot of encouraging signs.
"Rav [van den Berg] was playing at right-back for only the third time ever. He's only 19 and he was terrific. Lukas and Manu [Latte Lath] came in for their debuts and Sammy [Silvera] looked sharp. There were a lot of positives."
Huddersfield boss Neil Warnock told BBC Radio Leeds:
"They had a couple of good chances near the end but we played really well in the first 20 minutes of the second half. We had three or four great chances and, if you don't take them, you get punished. I can't fault the lads, they gave everything again. We covered every blade of grass and played some good stuff at times. It's just that final product.
"We've got some top teams to play now - Norwich and West Brom - but it's just nice to get off the mark. The fans were brilliant today as well. It's great to hear them giving us such support away from home. We thoroughly deserved it.
"With the amount of effort they gave me last week against a top side [Leicester City], I didn't think we could change the team. We should have got something then. When you lose a game that you know you should have got something out of like that, coming here is difficult. Our mindset was very, very good. Hoggy was our leader - he was super and everything evolved around him."