Huddersfield Town manager Darren Moore admits his side never recovered from early own goal

A Callum Robinson backheel bounced off Matty Pearson and into the net to give the Bluebirds an early lead.

It was the kind of misfortune that can easily happen in matches but the Terriers allowed it to affect them too much and played with no confidence for the rest of the game, which they lost 4-0.

Moore famously has history lifting teams after 4-0 defeats – his finest hour at previous club Sheffield Wednesday saw them reach last season's League One play-off final after losing the first leg at Peterborough United by the game margin – and he needs to do the same again with a trip to Leeds United on Saturday lunchtime.

"We conceded really early and not really recovered from it," reflected Moore, who had recorded his first win as Terriers manager three days earlier.

"I was disappointed, listening to the guys, the first goal looked like it ricocheted, the last touch was off one of our boys.

"The other three goals conceded were all set plays, so that's a disappointment.

"It was a disappointing night for us. I tried to make changes at half-time (introducing four substitutes and changing formation to 4-4-2) and change the system to try to get back in the game and get a goal because we know goals change games.

"We had one or two chances to get back into the game but that final touch in the opposition penalty area just didn't happen.

"You can look at the result and the manner of the first half.

"We understand we're in football and that can happen, conceding early goals.

"We scored two very early goals on Saturday and we saw what it did to QPR.

"Tonight they scored early. We had efforts at 1-0, at 2-0 and 3-0 and they just didn't happen.

"While there was a commitment and an endeavour to that, it just eluded us and that's the disappointing thing. In both boxes were just didn't get it right."

On his team's weakness at set-pieces, such a strength of the club in recent years, Moore said: "That boils down to concentration and making sure we get the first contacts.

"It's an area we need to look at and address."

Cardiff City manager Erol Bulut justifiably said his side could have won more comfortably.

"After last week the performance we showed was not really what we want to see from our team," he said.

"I said in our (pre-match) press conference we would see a different team and we saw the team I was expecting.

"It could have been more than four if we were more concentrated in front of goal.

"We had the chances but we had to stay more calm in front of the gate (goal). Sometimes when it's three or 4-0, players are selfish."