Stoke City 1 Huddersfield Town 1: Terriers can only do half a job in Championship relegation marathon

Considering how much pressure they were under in the second half, another point to the tally they will need to stay in next season's Championship was not to be sniffed at by the Terriers.

But as they were getting it, Birmingham City were beating Preston North End to push them a point further away from the dotted line.

Games are running out – just six to go – and they need to find a win or two from somewhere.

They were on track for 45 minutes in the Potteries, but lacked the energy and quality to see it through, and had to settle for a 1-1 draw.

The problem with chopping and changing styles as well as managers – Huddersfield have gone from Neil Warnock to Darren Moore to Andre Breitenreiter – is you usually end up with a squad ill-suited to how you want to play.

Breitenreiter likes his teams to be energetic and front-footed but after taking rhe lead in a reasonably well-managed first half, the Terriers found themselves pinned against the ropes in the second half.

Their inability to keep the ball – a factor throughout – hardly helped.

Huddersfield pitched their first half just right, battening down the hatches early on, increasing their threat as the game progressed and finishing it off with a lovely goal.

Bojan Radulovic scored it, the centre-forward's first since joining from HJK Helsinki in the summer, and let the emotion pour out of him.

Jack Rudoni started things off, driving the ball forward and unleashing a shot which Daniel Iversen batted away. Rudoni retrieved it and fed it to Jaheim Headley, pushed up from left-back into central midfield to thread a lovely pass to Radulovic.

The Serbian matched his accomplice's composure, shifting the ball out of his feet to curl a lovely shot, then lost his celebrating.

Stoke had more of the ball and hit the crossbar through a Lewis Bake free-kick, but Town had done a decent job of keeping them at arm's length.

Town thought Matty Pearson had headed them in front at a 10th minute corner but Pat Jones, stood on Iversen's toes, was well offside.

Rudoni had a shot blocked after being played in by Sorba Thomas, and another when a lovely bit of skill allowed the winger to tee him up again.

At times, though, Huddersfield were anxious on the ball, Brodie Spencer and Rudoni over-hitting simple passes to stop promising moves in their tracks.

Defensively, they were much more assured, Spencer getting back to tackle Bae Junho when Josh Laurent played a lovely pass. Junho had the run on his man but his touch allowed Spencer to nip in.

Pearson thundered into a great tackle as Mehdi Leris was about to go one-on-one with Lee Nicholls.

Stoke had other chances – Luke McNally heading wide and Baker shooting comfortably at Nicholls – before Baker thudded the woodwork after a foul was harshly given against Alex Matos.

It took just six second-half minutes to undo the good work.

Ji-Jana Hoever's equaliser, cutting in on his left foot before lashing past Nicholls – was outstanding, unless you watched it from a Town perspective.

There was nowhere near enough pressure on the ball throughout and especially at the end, when Thomas' defened was half-hearted at best.

From there it became one-way traffic, Breitenreiter's changes unable to stem the flow.

Huddersfield were relying on moments of defensive brilliance and good luck to stay on level terms.

Substitute Sead Haksabanovic was in a ridiculous amount of space when a cross came in from the right but fortunately Spencer quickly pounced on him.

Nicholls saved well after Wouter Burger left Pearson for dead and when he patted away Josh Laruent's header from a tight angle, Eudoni was well positioned to head Luke McNally's follow-up off the line.

The goalkeeper came out to save at the feet of Hoever and Michael Rose headed wide at a corner.

Spencer produced a great slide tackle on Hoever.

Huddersfield summoned up the energy for one last push at the death but until then Rudoni's free-kick over the bar had been just about their only threat.

When sheer willpower forced late corners and occasionally chances, McNally threw himself in the way of a Delano Burgzorg effort, the striker could not beat Iversen from a tight angle after outmuscling McNally and Ben Wiles volleyed and Michal Helik headed over. it was probably no coincidence that all but the centre-back were substitutes.

Stoke City: Iversen; Hoever (Stevens 87), Rose, McNally, Thompson; Baker (Haksabanovic HT); Leris (Manhoef 56), Burger, Laurent, Bae; Ennis (Mmaee 56). Unused substitutes: Stevens, Vidigal, Campbell, Bonham, Wilmot, Cundle.Huddersfield Town: Nicholls; Spencer, Pearson, Helik, Headley (Jackson 74); Thomas, Matos, Kasumu, Jones (Healey 58); Rudoni (Wiles 74); Radulovic (Burgzorg 68).Unused substitutes: Koroma, Maxwell, Diarra, Daley, Iorpenda.Referee: J Simpson (Lancashire).