Lack of cutting edge so costly for Huddersfield Town

Battle: Huddersfield Town's Pipa takes on Preston North End's Anthony Gordon.Battle: Huddersfield Town's Pipa takes on Preston North End's Anthony Gordon.
Battle: Huddersfield Town's Pipa takes on Preston North End's Anthony Gordon.
Carlos Corberan was left rueing a lack of clinical edge as stuttering Huddersfield slipped further into relegation danger with defeat at Preston.

Brad Potts edged the hosts ahead midway through the first half before Ched Evans put them in the driving seat after 67 minutes, despite being second best to Town.

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Scott Sinclair made the points safe with 10 minutes to go with an emphatic first-time finish, with the Terriers now losing four of their last five.

“We did not get the result in the moment when we were controlling the game,” said Huddersfield head coach Corberan.

“We created chances in the first 20 minutes and did not take them. After that, we continued in the same way but we let them score.

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“We played better in the first half. We changed things in the second half and it did not help the team.

“We wanted to give more balance to the team. We had a lot of battles in the pitch and situations that you need to win in the middle of the park.

“Preston started to do that in the second half and stopped our attacks.

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“We made another mistake and conceded a second goal and that was the game for them. We suffered on the counter-attack and conceded a third goal.

“Football is not about how many chances you create it is about how many chances you take.

“We did not make the most of those chances.

“Preston used their opportunities well and they were much better than us in that area.”

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Preston struggled in the early stages but led after 23 minutes, Potts finishing on the half-volley after Ryan Schofield had initially saved from Sinclair.

But they were indebted to goalkeeper Daniel Iversen for their lead, saving from Isaac Mbenza and Pipa and Fraizer Campbell pleaded for a penalty when felled.

Preston’s good spell of pressure paid off when Evans slotted home after Alan Browne’s perfect first-time pass picked him out.

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Preston added another late on when Sinclair hammered home after a flowing move involving Evans and Tom Barkhuizen opened up the unfortunate visitors.

Preston North End: Iversen, van den Berg, Storey, Hughes; Cunningham, Whiteman, Browne (Molumby 90), Sinclair (Johnson 90); Potts, Gordon (Barkhuizen 77), Evans. Unused substitutes: Bayliss, Rafferty, Jakobsen, Huntington, Ripley.

Huddersfield Town: Schofield, Edmonds-Green (Rowe 46); Keogh (Stearman 76), Sarr, Bacuna, Vallejo, O’Brien, Pipa; Mbenza (High 70), Campbell (Sanogo 76), Holmes (Phillips 54). Unused substitutes: Pritchard, Duhaney, Thomas, J Pereira.

Referee: J Linington (Isle of Wight).

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