Huddersfield 2 Middlesbrough 1: Terriers pip Boro as Ward grabs late winner

Just four minutes after fellow replacement Alan Lee put Town deservedly on terms with a close-range leveller on 86 minutes, Ward – making his return from injury from the bench after breaking a bone in his foot shortly before Christmas – fired a low shot past Jason Steele to seal a truly remarkable victory to lift the gloom on the foggiest of nights in West Yorkshire.

Going into the dying stages, it looked likely that Boro were on course for a smash-and-grab raid and an eighth successive victory over Huddersfield, courtesy of a close-range 78th-minute strike from Scott McDonald, who netted two goals in the 3-0 victory over Town at the Riverside Stadium in November.

But Town dug deep to secure Mark Robins’s first home victory as manager in famous fashion, with the fight and pluckiness they will require in the weeks ahead to stave off the drop.

It extended Boro’s winless streak on the road – with the Teessiders without an away success since early December – while inflicting a considerable blow to their play-off hopes in the process.

For sheer endeavour and persistence alone, the hosts merited the victory after a dominant first-half display and although chances were more scant on the restart, their effort remained constant throughout.

Ahead of Town’s previous home encounter against fellow strugglers Ipswich Town, Robins sagely warned that the spectacle would not be pretty – and so it proved in a grim stalemate.

The portents before last night’s game certainly didn’t auger for a classic – and not many goals – either.

All told, Town had failed to find the net in the first half of their last eight home matches.

Boro also possessed their own barren statistic in the opening half of recent games on their travels, with their last Championship away goal in the first period arriving at Town’s near-neighbours Leeds United – seven matches ago – in a 2-1 pre-Christmas reverse.

While that pattern continued for both sides, Town certainly did their best to make a mockery of their own lamentable return, producing the sort of turbo-charged start that Robins will have been hankering for and crucially maintained that tempo – with the only thing missing being a goal.

That perhaps should have arrived in the first 30 seconds, with Lee Novak – starting in place of suspended top-scorer James Vaughan – side-footing a chance wide after good work by Theo Robinson and Oscar Gobern before Adam Clayton’s shot flew off target.

The pressure continued with Town getting plenty of joy down the left against a makeshift right-back in central midfielder Nicky Bailey and they went close again when Robinson diverted Neil Danns’s volley just wide.

Displaying plenty of midfield assertiveness and appetite for the battle in freezing and misty conditions, the hosts remained in the box seat for the lion’s share of the half with the recalled Oliver Norwood planting a header just over shortly after the hour mark – a few minutes after penalty appeals at the other end were turned down after Peter Clarke tangled with Richard Smallwood.

A shot from Clayton whistled over before Robinson was off beam with a header under pressure from Sammy Ameobi, whose clumsy challenge in the box went unpunished by referee Stuart Attwell, much to the hosts’ anger.

Aside for an early McDonald snapshot and tame Ishmael Miller effort, Boro brought little to the table and looked a world away from play-off candidates in a disappointing first-half showing.

It didn’t improve on the restart, with Mowbray attempting to breath new life into his side by bringing on Emmanuel Ledesma and Rhys Williams from the bench shortly before the hour.

As the fog continued to swirl down, Town’s high energy continued, although the opportunities did dry up somewhat.

The action was pretty much reserved for the final 12 minutes with McDonald steering in his 11th goal of the campaign after latching onto Ameobi’s right-wing cross – the Teessiders’ first substantive chance of the evening.

Not that the travelling contingent were able to see the strike at the other end of the ground with fog blanketing swathes of the ground with an orange ball promptly used after the strike, with visibility a real issue.

The new ball certainly yielded a bit more luck for Town, who managed to conjure a leveller, courtesy of Lee’s strike. Goalkeeper Alex Smithies may have been the one celebrating a milestone yesterday – his 23rd birthday – but it provided a belated present for Lee, whose partner recently gave birth to daughter Eva.

But the best was saved until last when Ward fired home a winner after good work from Jack Hunt.

Huddersfield Town: Smithies; Hunt, P Clarke, Gerrard (Wallace 66), Dixon; Clayton, Norwood (Lee 84), Gobern, Danns; T Robinson (Ward 79), Novak. Unused substitutes: Bennett, Arfield, Atkinson, Lynch.

Middlesbrough: Steele; Bailey, Hines, McManus, Friend; Ameobi, Leadbitter, McEachran (Ledesma 58), Smallwood (R Williams 58); Miller (Main 68), McDonald. Unused substitutes: Leutwiler, Carayol, Haroun, Emnes.

Referee: S Attwell (Nuneaton).