Huddersfield Town overcome ‘mental’ challenge at Luton Town

Citing the ‘mental’ challenge of the Championship, Corberan was pleased his players were resilient not to cave in the first half.

Amari’i Bell went closest for the hosts when he struck the post in the first half.

After the interval, the Terriers featured more as an attacking force, Danel Sinani’s curling attempt flying inches wide, before he shot straight at goalkeeper Simon Sluga.

Harry Toffolo might have won it for the visitors in the closing stages, only to get underneath his attempt.

Huddersfield head coach Carlos Corberan said: “I think a point was fair.

“I knew Luton would be playing the first half with a lot of confidence.

“Luton was the better team in the first half and we were much better in the second – so it was a fair result.

“I am happy with the reaction of the team in the second half.

“Both teams had big chances, but it’s true they didn’t make Lee Nicholls work a lot.

“It’s mentally demanding in the Championship. I am pleased – there was a lot of effort in the second half after suffering in the first.

“They were better than us in all aspects in the first half but the second half, the total opposite.

“We were better than them second half. We knew the first half would be a high challenge because they’ve scored a lot of first-half goals.

“We had to suffer more than we wanted to to take a clean sheet first half but second half was better.

“The clean sheet is positive. The conditions and the opponent’s press made it difficult and we didn’t use our moments to break their press and ended up more in our half of the pitch. But I have to take the team’s reaction second half as a positive. Without creating a huge amount of chances, we showed an improvement.

“It’s never enough when you don’t create chances but Luton made it complicated for us.”

Luton boss Nathan Jones said: “I’ve spoken to people I know on their staff and they were fearful coming here today, so that’s the reputation we’re now building.”

Luton Town: Sluga, Lockyer, Bradley, Naismith, Bree, Rea, Berry (Mendes Gomes 87), Bell, Clark (Lansbury 73), Adebayo, Cornick (Jerome 67). Unused substitutes: Shea, Burke, Campbell, Osho.

Huddersfield Town: Nicholls, Pearson, Lees, Sarr, Toffolo, Thomas, High, O’Brien, Koroma, Sinani (Holmes 73), Ward (Campbell 83). Unused substitutes: Aarons, Ruffels, Turton, Russell, Bilokapic.

Referee: L Doughty (Lancashire).