Brighton & HA 4 Huddersfield Town 1: Town must bounce back against Boro – Robins

Huddersfield Town manager Mark Robins admitted that his men “capitulated” after conceding Leonardo Ulloa’s second goal which helped Brighton record a double over the visitors.

Robins, however, was convinced that Brighton should never have been awarded the corner that led to the goal.

A stunning goal by James Vaughan just before the interval had cancelled out Ulloa’s opener, and Robins said: “For 74 minutes I thought we’d get something from the game. But it wasn’t a corner and then we conceded. We can’t blame the referee, but the second goal led to a capitulation.

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“The two goals that followed their second came as a result of us thinking about the misfortune we suffered. Up to then, Brighton hadn’t hurt us very much.

“We had taken four points in our previous two games and we wanted another point or three, but it was unfortunate we conceded when we did.”

The Terriers have won only three times in the league since the turn of the year and Robins said it was essential they bounce back to keep above the drop zone.

He added: “We’ve got a lot of work to do and not a lot of time left; we’ve only got two months. For large spells of the game, we did okay, but we have to bounce back at home to Middlesbrough on Tuesday.

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“We will certainly go forward. We have 11 games left and we’re after as many points as possible. We also have some players coming back from injury and that will help us.”

Robins feels his men must 
become mentally stronger to prevent further such defeats and said: “It’s how you mentally put it behind you. We have to set up a team that suits us and, on this occasion, we stayed in the game pretty well up to Brighton’s second goal.”

Argentinian striker Ulloa’s hat-trick has taken him to five goals in seven games since signing for £2m from La Liga side Almeria during the January transfer window.

Brighton & HA: Kuszczak, Saltor, El-Abd, Upson, Calderon, Hammond, Dicker (Barnes 57), David Lopez, Orlandi, Ulloa (Forster-Caskey 82), Buckley (Mackail-Smith 73). Unused substitutes: Ankergren, Greer, Dunk, LuaLua.

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Huddersfield Town: Smithies, Hunt, P Clarke, Gerrard (Lynch 82), Dixon, Gobern (Arfield 65), Danns, Clayton, Vaughan (Novak 69), Scannell, Robinson. Unused substitutes: Bennett, Norwood, Wallace, Lee.

Referee: G Ward (Surrey).

Man of the match: Leonardo Ulloa.