Huddersfield Town have learned their lessons, but Hull City need to quickly catch up

It was an afternoon, though, that was more about the former, as a lot of the substitutions highlighted – Scott High’s energy for Danel Sinani’s guile, defender Naby Sarr for the attacking Sorba Thomas, the battering ram that is Tom Eaves for Tyler Smith, more of a safe-cracker.

“This team will fight,” promised Hull coach Grant McCann. “We might come up short some games and we might make mistakes - all of us, including myself - but we’ll never stop fighting.”

The game had backed up every word.

Duane Holmes effectively ended it in the 73rd minute when a corner came all the way over to him and he shifted the ball into enough space to curl a sumptuous finish. At that point, we could all have gone home.

But Hull kept chasing the lost cause, Sarr making a brilliant block when Mallik Wilks lingered too long over a strike, George Moncur and Eaves shooting over and wide respectively on the turn, and Wilks firing wide.

They were mirage moments – to say Hull deserved anything from the game would be misleading – but showed a spirit perhaps was not always there the last time they slid out of this division. They need more than just that, though.

Huddersfield have it. They moved on from Danny Cowley’s management precisely so they did not have to watch these games – scrappy, niggly, hard-fought and tough work for a referee who did not show the authority to help himself – but this year Carlos Corberan has come to accept his side need to be capable of more than just playing the way they want to, and the club has stocked his squad with the tools needed.

“We’ve got the ability, we’ve got the work ethic,” said Tom Lees, one of those who has added grit this season.

His goal, after nine minutes, was the game in a nutshell.

Hull were aggrieved that whilst Andy Cannon was off the field having a gashed shin tended to, the game restarted with a Huddersfield corner rather than a free-kick.

The Terriers clustered all their players seven to 12 yards behind the near post, then dashed forwards as the ball was delivered. Hull’s seemed more interested in wrestling them away than watching the ball.

Matt Ingram’s punch could only spoon it into the air for everyone to charge at and Lees and Richie Smallwood got there first, bundling the ball into the net.

Such a strength in League One last season, defensive set-pieces now appear a weak point for Hull. Welcome to the big league.

“In the Championship the teams seem to be a lot bigger and I don’t think we’ve played any of the big ones yet - the West Broms and teams like that,” said McCann. “Today it was just a mistake and we can’t legislate for that.”

It is not only at that end they are letting themselves down.

“There were 30 crosses in the box and we haven’t got on the end of any of them,” he noted ruefully.

At 1-0 there was skill on show from both sides but apart from Keane Lewis-Potter’s free-kick well saved by Lee Nicholls, they were rarely of the nicey-nice variety but defensive, destructive skills.

Lees and Matty Pearson were terrific in Huddersfield’s defence and Holmes’s goal so deserved because it rewarded his work-rate. Cannon fought hard in Hull’s midfield.

Not for the first time Lewis O’Brien - constantly kicked and bleeding from an eye wound at one point - and Jacob Greaves looked bound for a higher level.

To win like that was hugely enjoyable for the home fans but Hull centre-back Greaves must have been unusual in looking forward to re-watching the game.

“We’ll be watching it back – probably with my dad – and seeing what I can do in terms of growing as a player,” he said.

His dad is former Hull defender Mark, an unofficial, unpaid extra analyst for the 21-year-old.

“We don’t watch every game but when there’s stuff I want to learn or questions, I’ll ask him,” he explained. “I’ll sometimes show him clips from training – more the good ones than the bad ones, I’ll have to show him the bad ones a little bit more.

“He was more harsh when I was younger but now I’ve played a few games it’s just honesty. He never asks to watch it with me, it’s my own choice.”

If it was a brawny performance from Greaves on the pitch, he showed a brainier side off it.

“Our performance analysis are absolutely brilliant,” he said. “The detail I get from Josh Appleyard and Ryan Maddra is quality and I have started to do a lot more analysis. It’s something I like to do as soon as I get the email that the clips are up.”

With a deeper squad better balanced between pretty and pragmatic, Huddersfield and their young coach are showing they are learning.

To hear Greaves speak gave encouragement that an inexperienced Hull squad is keen to do the same.

They have the basic foundation in a fighting spirit but until they can add more, there could be more harsh lessons like this.