Late drama puts Hull City on a high but no need for Huddersfield Town to get too low over 2-1 defeat

The Tigers would be well advised to ride that emotion, the Terriers to try their best to put it to one side.

Liam Rosenior's side won, for the fourth time in five matches, and at this stage of the season that will do, no further questions. A coach who usually likes to emphasise performances over results dropped the mask as he vigorously celebrated winning ugly with the away fans.

It stung Huddersfield to have the deserved draw Jack Rudoni looked to have earnt snatched away but Jon Worthington's four-match caretaker stint has added more than just points, it has brought back pride too. That is what they need to hold onto, not the defining moment Worthington called a "sucker-punch".

Had Andre Breitenreiter left as soon as Rudoni's strike hit the net he would have done so happier but from his perch in the directors’ box the coach-in-waiting will have been scanning for things to work with when his visa comes through, and they were not hard to find.

The Lee Nicholls save creating the corner Alfie Jones headed back for Jacob Greaves' controlled volley was about as hard as it got for him.

The shortcomings were glaring too – not the worst thing either.

For 85 minutes it was about whether the Terriers could cancel out Greaves' seventh-minute goal but the majority of decisive moments were squeezed into about two stoppage-time minutes.

As the fourth official raised his board, it was looking like a Huddersfield hard-luck story. It would be, but with a few more twists yet.

The Terriers had pushed hard for an equaliser and although they got no closer than a Sorba Thomas effort which deflected onto a post off Jones' inside leg, they made Hull dig in defensively.

Delano Burgzorg – who played, briefly, against Breitenreiter's Hoffenheim last season – showed his quality from the bench, not least in the turn and pass to set up Thomas. The right winger on the left was a big influence, as was Burgzorg's fellow substitute Brahima Diarra.

Added time churned stomachs.

Jaden Philogene should have put the game to bed when played through one on one. Instead, his shot clanged a post.

Seconds later, Diarra carried the ball down the other end to find Rudoni just outside the area for an accurate and composed equaliser.

But elation became deflation cruelly quickly.

Huddersfield were not undone by a moment of inspiration, just a lump from goalkeeper Ryan Allsop towards a back line with three giant central defenders (one, Matty Pearson, was playing right-back).

Hull kept it alive, allowing Abdulkadir Omur to curl a far more cultured and hard-to-defend cross from deep. Greaves beat Rudoni to it to score a diving header in front of the away end, the cherry on top of his 200th senior appearance.

For the second time in a week a packed away end partied as if Hull had won the play-offs, not merely stayed close to them, as the smell of pyrotechnics filled the damp air. They understood what those victories said about their side.Greaves highlighted Jones’ part in both goals, but the centre-backs did their day jobs well too. For a team with only one defensively-minded midfielder and no natural right-back – Regan Slater began there before Tyler Morton's injury saw him hand over to left-footer Matty Jacob – it was an excellent rearguard.

"You're caught inbetween going for a second at 60 minutes and trying to hold on to what you've got," said Rosenior, but it felt Hull were pinned back long before that, deliberately dithering over restarts and tumbling to the turf to break up the rhythm from early in the first half before referee Rebecca Welch took a tighter grip on it in the second.

Huddersfield will look at just three shots on target and know it should have been more but Worthington has put them on the front foot, holding midfielder Jonathan Hogg pressing Allsop to force an early error before they largely settled for giving him time on the ball to keep everyone in front marked.

Despite his reluctance, it must have been tempting to ask Worthington to mind the shop longer but he has paved the way for Breitenreiter well – it just did not feel like that on Saturday night.

Huddersfield Town: Nicholls; Pearson, Balker, Lees, Spencer; Matos (Diarra 55), Hogg (Ward 76); Rudoni, Wiles (Kasumu 55), Thomas; Koroma (Burgzorg 55). Unused substitutes: Radulovic, Maxwell, Jones, Jackson, Nakayama.

Hull City: Allsop; Slater, Jones, Greaves, Giles; Tufan (Coyle 76), Morton (Jacob 32); Philogene, Carvalho (Omur 63), Zaroury (Docherty 63); Sharp (Ohio HT). Unused substitutes: McLoughlin, Traore, Pandur, Connolly.

Referee: R Welch (Washington).