Newcastle United 1 Huddersfield Town 0: Terriers draw another blank in St James' defeat

A late strike from Ayoze Perez was enough to deservedly settle a clash between two teams battling against the drop in Newcastle United’s favour.

Town remain three points clear of the bottom three due to Southampton losing at West Ham United.

But with a final week likely to feature trips to Manchester City and Chelsea plus a home game against Arsenal, the Terriers cannot afford to keep letting chances to boost their own hopes pass them by.

David wagner’s men battled hard on a bitterly cold afternoon but offered little threat to the home goal.

Mathias ‘Zanka’ Jorgensen did go close with a second half header that was blocked amid a scrum of players in the six-yard box.

But that was about as good as it got as Town failed to score for an 12th away game this season, despite :Laurent Depoitre battling manfully as the lone frontman.

Dwight Gayle had come closest to breaking the deadlock in the first half. First, he brought a smart save from Jonas Lossl after battling his way through the Town defence.

Then, after Jonjo Shelvey had released the Newcastle striker with a quickly taken free-kick after Jonathan Hogg had been booked for a foul, he lifted the ball over Lossl but wide of the post.

Town’s third let-off at the feet of Gayle came ten minutes before the interval, as he fired narrowly over following lovely approach play from Matt Ritchie and DeAndre Yedlin.

After the break, Huddersfield looked much more comfortable but they were finally undone ten minutes from time.

Christian Atsu’s cross could only be palmed to Kenedy by Jonas Lossl. He, in turn, rolled a pass in for Ayoze Perez to finish from close range.