Huddersfield Town boss Carlos Corberan hails Terriers’ ‘personality’ at Fulham

Cottagers boss Marco Silva laid into referee Tony Harrington for awarding Huddersfield a controversial penalty, Duane Holmes converting from the spot to add to Danny Ward’s opener before Bobby De Cordova-Reid pulled one back for the Championship leaders, who lost in the league for the first time since December.

The result consolidated Huddersfield’s position in the play-offs slots and fuelled supporter hopes that a Premier League return that did not seem particularly likely in August is more than possible.

“For me the result was the consequence of a high level of personality from the players, “ Corberan said. “To come to this stadium and to achieve three points you can only do this with a lot of personality.

“Against teams like them you have to attack perfectly, and then defend perfectly. The mentality shown by the team was key.

“I put this win in context, we are playing against the best team in the league and away from home – so you can’t be more excited than that. But I get satisfaction from every win.

“Every player performed to a high level. In the first half, especially, we were very good and looked very balanced. And we got a result that the incredible effort deserved, that is the best thing.

“The result doesn’t tell me too much more about our promotion hopes because we have played more games than some of our rivals.”

Silva, who was shown a yellow card during the match by Harrington, was convinced Fulham goalkeeper Marek Rodak had been harshly punished for a coming together with Sorba Thomas that resulted in the penalty award.

Indeed, the Portuguese argued that had it been Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic involved in a similar collision no action would have been taken, and that Fulham themselves were denied spot-kicks of their own, most notably late on when a header from Tosin Adarabioyo hit Jonathan Russell on an arm.

“We were the best team on the pitch, definitely,” Silva said. “They got a goal from a mistake from ourselves – the striker reacted quicker than our defender – and after the decisive moment of the match was the penalty.

“It was a clear mistake by the referee. It was never a penalty –the player fell on our goalkeeper and the decision was strange for me because it was a clear mistake. Marek didn’t do anything.

“It was tough for us to understand why. Okay, I can make mistakes and the referee as well but it was so clear.”

Fulham: Rodak, Williams, Adarabioyo, Ream, Robinson, Cairney (Kebano 60), Chalobah (Reed 76), Wilson (Ivan Cavaleiro 76), Carvalho, Reid, Mitrovic. Unused substitutes: Tete, Hector, Gazzaniga, Seri.

Huddersfield Town: Nicholls, Turton, Pearson, Lees, Toffolo, Russell, Hogg, O’Brien, Thomas (Sarr 86), Ward (Rhodes 85), Holmes (Sinani 76). Unused substitutes: Koroma, Chapman, Ruffels, Eiting.

Referee: Tony Harrington (Cleveland).