Huddersfield Town 1-2 Middlesbrough: Jonny Howson nets late winner after penalty miss

Jonny HowsonImage source, Rex Features
Image caption,

Jonny Howson's late goal came seconds after he missed from the penalty spot

Middlesbrough's Jonny Howson scored a late winner after missing a penalty as his side beat Huddersfield Town 2-1 in the Championship.

Boro's Isaiah Jones and Huddersfield's Josh Koroma missed big first-half chances before Josh Coburn came off the bench to put the visitors ahead as he dinked the ball over Jacob Chapman after a well-timed Morgan Rogers pass.

Town levelled soon after as Michal Helik fired in low into the bottom corner from the edge of the box before Sorba Thomas had a goal ruled out for offside.

But Howson had an 84th-minute penalty saved by Chapman, but immediately made amends from the resulting corner when he fired a bouncing shot in from 12 yards to secure the three points.

Boro move to within three points of the play-off spots while Huddersfield remain one place above the relegation zone, with four points more than third-from-bottom QPR.

Jones' miss after 18 minutes will be one that will keep him up at night - he did well to chip the ball over the goalkeeper but misjudged the spin of the ball and miskicked from a couple of yards out, allowing Yuta Nakayama time to come in and clear off the line.

Koroma forced a smart save from Tom Glover two minutes later before joining Jones in the nightmare club in the 33rd minute when he got on the end of Thomas' pass and rounded Glover, only to hit the bar from the edge of the box as Rav van den Berg put him under pressure.

Coburn's cool finish gave Boro the lead after Rogers' excellent pass, but the lead only lasted around five minutes as Helik fired home after Boro failed to deal with a set-piece.

Three minutes later Town fans thought they had gone ahead when Thomas smashed the ball home after being put through by David Kasumu, but the flag went up.

Koroma and Kasumu both had efforts for Huddersfield, who played some excellent football before they were on the end of a contentious penalty decision.

Rogers went down under a soft challenge in the area, but Chapman dived to his left to superbly save Howson's spot-kick.

But, from the resulting corner, Matt Clarke headed the ball towards the penalty spot from the back post and Howson was there to hit the ball into the ground and see it loop up into the net.

Huddersfield Town manager Darren Moore told BBC Radio Leeds:

"I said to the players 'keep your heads up because you certainly didn't deserve that tonight'.

"But what's doing Huddersfield Town at the moment is lapses in concentration and I think that's what did us today.

"We're all gutted for Jacob because it was an outstanding save from a decision that was 50-50, but we gave the referee a decision to make, but he's pulled off a wonderful save.

"But for that to come 30 seconds afterwards, we're disappointed really, but there's plenty of positives to take from it and we need to take from it and need to learn from it going forward."

Middlesbrough head coach Michael Carrick told BBC Radio Tees:

"I thought the other day at Rotherham we played some very good football and for the most part were very good.

"Today was a bit of a grind for us if we're honest, it was tough and credit to them they pressed us, they made it difficult, they're very good in transition and they make you defend big spaces so you can never really settle.

"It just felt like one of those games and it was a bit of a struggle. We said at half-time that if it's going to be chaos, let's win the battle of chaos and the boys found a way in the end.

"I'm buzzing for Jonny, really delighted for him because it was a good save for the penalty, but you can see the spirit in the group celebrating the second goal like they did all together meant so much everybody."

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