Blackburn Rovers 1-1 Huddersfield Town: Michal Helik earns Terriers draw

Adam Wharton fired Blackburn into the lead against Huddersfield

Defender Michal Helik scored his eighth goal of the season to earn Huddersfield Town a vital point at Blackburn Rovers.

The Poland international centre-back headed in to cancel out Adam Wharton's early opener for the Lancashire side, in a contest between two teams in relegation form.

The stalemate extended Blackburn's winless Championship run to seven games, as they moved nearer the relegation zone than the play-off positions for the first time this season.

The result means the Terriers have taken four points from Jon Dahl Tomasson's side, with their only win in the past 10 league games being the 3-0 victory over the same opponents on Boxing Day.

Both sides were desperate for a win, with Blackburn's dire run seeing them drop from ninth place in December to 18th and Huddersfield winless in three and just above the drop zone.

Rovers got off to a great start courtesy of a gift from Terriers centre-back Jonathan Hogg, who gave the ball straight to Adam Wharton to finish expertly with seven minutes on the clock.

The home side sought to drive home the advantage as Sam Gallagher, starting for the first time since September after an injury absence, saw a shot deflected into the side netting.

Huddersfield, however, took advantage of the worst defence in the Championship.

New signing Rhys Healey tested returning Rovers goalkeeper Aynsley Pears and from the resulting Sorba Thomas corner Helik glanced his header into the far corner of the net.

Gallagher appealed loudly for a penalty as he ran through onto as Sammie Szmodics pass and had his heels clipped, but it was the visitors who missed the best chance to grab all three points as a swift counter-attack saw Josh Koroma run through and square for Jack Rudoni, who sliced his shot from five yards out with the goal gaping.

Blackburn suffered another injury blow early in the second half as Harry Pickering, back from missing last week's defeat at West Brom through illness, appeared to tweak a hamstring, and it was Huddersfield who again had the better chances to win the game.

Pears had to be sharp to deny new signing Bojan Radulovic, David Kasumu dragged his shot wide after another counter had exposed Blackburn's leaking defence, and then Helik almost bagged another with a fine volley that looped across the box and narrowly past the far post.

Blackburn manager Jon Dahl Tomasson told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"Huddersfield came with a very clear plan to sit back and rely on set-plays and transition moments, and teams like that can be difficult to play through, with a lot of bodies behind the ball.

"We started well and scored an excellent goal but the injury to Hayden Carter killed the momentum a bit. We were too slow and conceded a goal we shouldn't have conceded, but all credit to Helik as he's scored a lot of goals from set-pieces this season.

"We dominated the second half totally and did a lot of good things until it came to playing around the box and creating chances. They had some good transition moments when we made easy mistakes on the ball."

Huddersfield manager Darren Moore told BBC Radio Leeds:

"The team's in a good place in terms of the performance, it's just capitalising on, and fashioning those chances, and taking them.

"We had to be patient today, our work was good off the ball because Blackburn are a good team, but with the chances we had today we could have capitalised more.

"The pleasing things were getting the two strikers on the pitch today, and then the fact that we can see what they're going to bring to us, and players coming off the bench made a stronger finish to the game, when in recent weeks it's probably made us a little bit weaker.

"That was Michal's eighth goal this season and it's incredible, and again it was a Sorba Thomas assist. Sorba is in the top six Championship players for goals and assists with two goals and eight assists, and again he has provided for the team."