Huddersfield Town 1 Middlesbrough 2: Town pay penalty as woeful home run continues

Instead, the Terriers’ tendency to press the self-destruct button in front of their own fans saw Middlesbrough grab a stoppage-time winner from the penalty spot to extend the club’s winless run on home soil to 10 games.

It is a awful record, stretching all the way back to March 1 when Barnsley were thumped 5-0. It is also comfortably the worst in the second tier, with only Blackpool coming close thanks to seven league and cup outings at Bloomfield Road having passed since their last triumph – ironically against Huddersfield last season.

In new manager Chris Powell’s first game, that woeful run rarely looked like being ended with Middlesbrough dominating from the moment Grant Leadbitter opened the scoring with a thunderbolt of a free-kick late in the first half.

That said, what Town should have been reflecting on come full-time was a hard-won point thanks to Jon Stead’s equaliser against the run of play with just four minutes remaining.

But then, with just 60 seconds of stoppage time left, Tommy Smith inexplicably pulled at Adam Reach’s shirt inside the area when the Boro man was running away from danger and Leadbitter did the rest from the spot.

“The lads were absolutely gutted to lose,” said Terriers midfielder Jacob Butterfield about a contest that ended with an ugly confrontation between the two teams as tempers boiled over in the John Smith’s Stadium tunnel.

“It was a really poor mistake from us and similar in many ways to Charlton at home last month when we conceded in the last minute (to draw 1-1).

“Watford (when Town lost 4-2) was a bit different but, again, we did well in the game only for poor defending to cost us points.”

Asked about the tunnel clash – which both managers claimed to have missed – Butterfield replied: “There was a bit of bother going on (during the match). I don’t know what happened afterwards. But the game was a bit fiery.

“I thought, though, that we managed the game well. We said at half-time there wasn’t a lot in it and that if we stayed in the game then chances are we could get a goal.

“We did that but then conceded late on, just like Charlton. We would have three more points without those two last-minute goals.”

Gale had spent Friday night partying with his team-mates in Nottingham after clinching Yorkshire’s 31st County Championship title – and first trophy since 2002, since when all the other 17 counties had lifted silverware – earlier in the day at Trent Bridge.

A sore head, though, was not going to prevent the lifelong fan from watching his beloved Town take on Boro.

For the opening half-hour or so, Gale’s efforts were rewarded by a dogged display that saw most of the few chances created fall to Huddersfield.

First, Nahki Wells was unfortunate to see his acrobatic overhead kick fly straight into the hands of Dimitros Konstantopoulos when a yard either side would surely have resulted in the ball hitting the back of the net.

Then, after Wells had sprung Boro’s offside trap with a delightful ball over the top, James Vaughan’s first touch was so heavy that Konstantopoulos was able to race from his line a fraction of a second before being clattered by the Terriers striker.

It proved to be Vaughan’s last meaningful involvement, the clash – which brought him a yellow card – leaving the Town man hobbling and he was replaced by Stead five or so minutes later.

Despite losing last season’s top scorer, Powell’s side continued to press in that opening half-hour as Joel Lynch headed against the top of the crossbar and then Butterfield brought a sharp save from Konstantopoulos.

At that stage, Town looked capable of winning but everything changed when Leadbitter drilled in a 30-yard free-kick on 36 minutes to put the visitors ahead.

After that, the game became a procession towards the Huddersfield goal as Adam Clayton, on his return, fired into the side-netting and Kike twice went close. Half-time brought a respite but the onslaught continued after the break as Smithies had to bravely save at the feet of Kike before then denying Albert Adomah.

Kike also headed over when unmarked before Jelle Vossen came within an inch of marking his Boro debut with a goal.

As all these chances were squandered, the hope from a Town perspective was that they may get a break. It came four minutes from time when Danny Ward skipped down the left and centred for Stead to tap in.

Parity restored, that should have been that. But then Smith tugged at the shirt of Reach right in front of referee Kevin Wright and Leadbitter cooly did the rest from the spot to send the 3,514 visiting fans – a number swelled by this being their first Saturday trip to Huddersfield since the days of Leeds Road in 1988 – home happy.

Asked about his first impressions of Town, new manager Powell said: “I am not going to dance around it – there is work to do. It was a cheap way to give them three points. Tommy (Smith) is a good young player I’m getting to know and he has some good qualities. But he’s inexperienced and you can’t do things like that.

“Overall, we need to improve, that is very obvious. But there are 40 games to go and that is a lot of points at stake.”