'I could have changed everyone after the first half': Andre Breitenreiter angry after Huddersfield Town's Championship loss at Cardiff City

After four pretty impressive performances under caretaker manager Jon Worthington and two encouraging early results for new permanent boss Brietenreiter, Town slipped into bad winter ways again following a 1-0 reverse in South Wales.

Town remain in relegation peril, above the bottom three only through having scored more goals than 22nd-placed Stoke.

They return to action at home to West Brom on Sunday and will find themselves in the bottom three ahead of the game if Sheffield Wednesday pick something up against Leeds United on Friday or Stoke City take a point in their game at Preston the following day.

On his first defeat as Town chief, Breitenreiter said: "There are reasons why we are 21st in the table and in the last few years nearly the same.

"It is not possible to change things in two weeks. But I learned a lot about the team and observed many things we should change because we are fighting for our lives to stay in the league.

"We need the same performance from the last two games (Leeds and Watford) and this was a day we should forget as soon as possible.

"I could have changed everyone after the first half, it was too slow and it was too easy for Cardiff to create chances.

"The second half we controlled the game and had big chances but you don't deserve to get a point when it's not 100 per cent."

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Danny Ward spurned one glaring chance against his old club for Town, as Cardiff did the double over the West Yorkshire outfit and moved to within seven points of the play-offs.

Famara Diedhiou's first-half finish secured a 1-0 victory as Cardiff claimed three consecutive wins for the first time since September.

It was the 31-year-old's first Championship goal since bagging a brace for Bristol City in a 3-1 success at Middlesbrough on February 23, 2021.

Head coach Erol Bulut said: "The last four games, I'm happy.

"We are performing - it was not easy after the Bristol City win on Saturday, a derby - and we have to think positive.

"If you win games you feel much better. The last games, we get our confidence back and it looks much better.

"We have 10 games to play and hopefully we can show much more.

"But I don't think about play-offs right now. We take every game by game and at the end we see what we are going to get.

"There is 30 points (to play for) and we are trying to get the maximum."