Cowley – We are moving in the right direction

Huddersfield boss Danny Cowley feels his struggling side are moving in the right direction after their comfortable 3-0 home win over Hull.

Karlan Grant turned well in the box before firing home to open the scoring after 68 minutes.

Substitute Juninho Bacuna rifled a powerful shot into the bottom corner after a superb counter-attack six minutes later.

And it was game over when Elias Kachunga got on the end of Lewis O’Brien’s cross home with eight minutes to go.

It was the first time the Terriers have recorded back-to-back league wins since February 2018.

Cowley said: “We believe we are moving in the right direction. We saw a team that was fighting really hard.

“We have done well this week, but we won’t get carried away. We will stay humble and move forward.

“It was a good performance, our best start to a game since we’ve been here. We played with an energy and pinned them back.

“We tweaked a few bits at half-time and became more fluid. We found the all-important first goal and that gave us control.

“We were pleased with the goals. It was an unbelievable finish from Karlan Grant and it was a great goal from Juninho Bacuna.

“He is a fantastic player with so many tools to his game, he needs to use the right tools at the right time and we are trying him to get the basics done well.

“We are coming together and fighting for one another, that can be really powerful.

“I am pleased for the players. We have trained hard and had plenty of meetings, They have been long days and I am pleased they have got the reward that their hard work deserves.”

In the first half, Kamil Grosicki went close with a curling free-kick after 34 minutes before Tigers keeper George Long saved a Jaden Brown shot with his legs.

Kamil Grabara pushed away a fierce Tom Eaves volley on the stroke of half-time after he beat the offside trap.

Trevoh Chalobah saw half-hearted appeals for a penalty waved on 52 minutes, before Christopher Schindler fired over the bar from a 58th minute corner.

But the Terriers stepped up a gear after the break and Hull boss Grant McCann admitted his side had been beaten by a better team.

He said: “I felt that the result was coming because we were off from the first minute and were lucky to be 0-0 at the break.

“Sometimes you have to give the opposition credit, they were better than us and we have to hold our hands up and learn from it.

“We have to move on and assess the defeat. We have to come back from the international break in a better place.

“It is the first time I can say my team has lacked aggression and energy, they had more than us and that is what won them the game.

“We didn’t look a threat at all, it is what it is in this league. If you drop your standards you get punished and that was what happened.

“If you are not on your game then you will get beat, it doesn’t matter where a team is in the league.

“Huddersfield are a good team and will climb the league. We were miles away.

“My standards are higher than this and if the players are happy to be 15/16th in the league then I will move them on.”

FourFourTwo Staff

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