Mark Fotheringham says Huddersfield Town just have to cut out silly mistakes because the rest is working well

The coach was full of praise for his injury-ravaged side after a performance far better than Sunderland's 2-0 winning scoreline suggested.

"To win late on or at least push for a draw that was probably the minimum we deserved," he argued.

"We've got no time to feel disappointed with ourselves because it's a quick succession of games and it's important we start getting points in these next three games before the World Cup break.

"When you're sitting there as a staff you're getting into great positions and it's all stuff we're bringing from the training ground. You can see there's a clarity to what we're doing and week in, week out, we're building.

"You can see we're definitely not a team at the bottom of the league on performance levels but it's just about cutting out the silly mistakes and handling the situations when teams counter-attack us late on.

"I'm really positive going into Saturday because we're brave enough as well as a group to handle these injury situations which are the worst I've experienced as a coach."

They were added to when Yuta Nakayama was stretchered off the day after being named in Japan's World Cup squad. The centre-back will be assessed on Thursday.

That compounded the loss on the morning of the game of Tom Lees.

"I woke up this morning and found out my big warrior captain, Tom Lees, had Covid," said Fotheringham. He's probably one of the best defenders in the league at the moment and a big reason why we're getting clean sheets.

"I've been in these situations before where you've got to puff your chest out and get on with it. I've got a real belief in the players.

"The lads that stepped in did ever so well.

"Brodie Spencer performed excellently. It was his Championship debut and he played like a man. Young Ben Jackson showed his flexibility in many positions and on another day when Holmesy (Duane Holmes) takes that chance, we go 1-0 up but they score on the coutner-attack.

"That's the nature of the beast at the moment.

"We not got any time time to feel sorry for ourselves, we've just got to keep working hard.

"You could see we were looking more solid and aggressive. Sunderland didn't cause us any problems and I felt the stadium was right behind us

"Of course the goal late on was disappointing but we were still pushing and Boyley (Will Boyle) should have scored his header after getting himself in a great position."

Opposite number Tony Mowbray was complimentary about the Terriers at full-time.

"I'd like to congratulate Huddersfield because if they can play like that every week, they are going to be fine," he said.

Asked about those words, Fotheringham said: "It means a lot. He told me the other day you're a fantastic side and what you've done so far is incredible.

This team was dead and buried at the start of the season and you've got them playing with confidence.

"To hear that from a manager with that experience gives me a lot of positivity moving forward but I'm not a guy who needs compliments going forward.

"You all know the people I've learnt my trade from, I know what I need to do to build this team, layer it and get them in a situation where they're going to win games.

"I've got to almost got to push through this difficult period and get to the World Cup break so we can get these players back and recover, and have more depth in the squad.

"I think there'll be a lot of nice cards at the end of the season if we keep this team in the league and also from a lot of parents as well whose sons have got debuts almost every week.

"It's all young lads and they're desperate to come in and work hard so I can't fault them but we do have a bit of naivety at times.

"That only gets better with the work you do on the training pitch and learning from what you do on the field in the live games."