A confident and free-flowing display from Huddersfield Town saw the Terriers overcome Queens Park Rangers 2-0 at the John Smith’s Stadium.
Carlos Corberán’s side picked up all three Sky Bet Championship points from the meeting with the Rs following first half goals from Josh Koroma and Harry Toffolo in West Yorkshire.
There were three changes to the XI from Wednesday night’s game in Cardiff, with Pipa most notably making his return from a hamstring injury that had kept him out since the November international break.
In attack, Isaac Mbenza and Fraizer Campbell returned to the Terriers starting line-up as Town went in search of a second successive home win.
The quest for that second victory at the John Smith’s Stadium in the last seven days couldn’t have got off to a better start as Josh Koroma spectacularly put the Terriers ahead in the fourth minute.
The forward drove in from the left flank and picked out the top corner with a curling effort to give Town the lead with our earliest goal so far this season.
That goal was close to being one of a pair of early strikes for Town, only for the outstretched hand of Seny Dieng who diverted Harry Toffolo’s effort away from the bottom corner.
Town’s enthusiastic start continued into the midway point in the half as Josh Koroma tried to double his and Town’s tally for the day with a carbon copy of his early effort, but this one flighted just over the crossbar.
At the other end, Ben Hamer was called into action for the first time just after the 20-minute mark. Former Town loanee Chris Willock tried his luck from range but Hamer was equal to it with comfort.
The Terriers were showing no signs of slowing down from a near perfect start and put together another impressive move in search of a second.
This time it was Fraizer Campbell on the end of it, but his driving effort on his way into the box was gathered by Dieng.
Having built that attack down the right, the next came down the left and saw Town double the lead shortly before the break.
Koroma and Toffolo linked up well once again, with the former slipping in the latter who swept home to make it 2-0 with his second goal of the campaign and first for Town at the John Smith’s Stadium.
It was Koroma involved again with the Terriers’ final opportunity before the break, having an effort blocked from inside the box, after the ball had ran away from Carel Eiting’s path.
After the break, Koroma was inches away from stretching the advantage, as Pipa’s cross from the right just evaded his run at the back post moments before Lewis O’Brien saw an effort dug out from under his feet tipped around the post by Dieng.
As Town’s search for a third goal of the afternoon continued, the visitors looked to get themselves back into the encounter with just over 10 minutes left to play.
After a short stoppage due to an injury that forced Town skipper Christopher Schindler off with an injury, Yoann Barbet went close for the Rs.
It took an alert Toffolo block to divert Barbet’s well-struck goal-bound effort away from the target, following a smartly taken corner from the left.
In what had been a relatively quite second half following a frantic first 45 minutes, seven minutes were added on as the Terriers looked to see out the encounter.
With the sleet now persistently coming down in West Yorkshire late on, Town finished the job off to get back to winning ways in the Sky Bet Championship.
Next up for Town is a second Sky Bet Championship home game in the space of four days when Sheffield Wednesday are the visitors to the John Smith’s Stadium for a Yorkshire derby on Tuesday 8 December 2020; 7.45pm kick-off.
HUDDERSFIELD TOWN (4-3-3)
Ben Hamer; Harry Toffolo, Naby Sarr, Christopher Schindler (c) (Rarmani Edmonds-Green, 79’), Pipa (Juninho Bacuna, 73’); Jonathan Hogg, Lewis O’Brien, Carel Eiting; Josh Koroma, Fraizer Campbell (Danny Ward, 73’), Isaac Mbenza (, Demeaco Duhaney, 87’)
Unused subs
Ryan Schofield; Alex Pritchard, Adama Diakhaby, Jaden Brown, Matty Daly
QUEENS PARK RANGERS (4-2-3-1)
Seny Dieng; Niko Hämäläinen, Yoann Barbet, Robert Dickie, Todd Kane; Tom Carroll, Geoff Cameron (c) (Dominic Ball, 56’); Chris Willock (George Thomas, 56’), Ilias Chair (Albert Adomah, 81’), Bright Osayi-Samuel (Charlie Kelman, 81’); Lyndon Dykes (Macauley Bonne, 46’)
Unused subs
Liam Kelly; Conor Masterson, Osman Kakay, Faysal Bettache
REFEREE
Dean Whitestone
