16 October 2021

Carlos Corberan insists Huddersfield are ‘thinking game by game’

16 October 2021

Huddersfield boss Carlos Corberan insists he is not thinking about the Championship play-offs following his side’s 2-0 win over Hull.

Tom Lees opened the scoring after goalkeeper Matt Ingram fluffed a Danel Sinani corner in the ninth minute.

Duane Holmes wrapped the game up with 17 minutes to go to move Huddersfield up to sixth.

“Being in the top six doesn’t change anything,” Corberan said. “We will have a very demanding game against Birmingham on Wednesday.

“It will be a tough game and the key now is how we recover and use the next three days.

“The players are thinking game by game. We just want to arrive at the games with the best level we can find to compete.

“We are strong in the games when we have energy and full concentration and we are not thinking about the play-offs.

“The game was exactly what I was expecting to see. I knew their energy would be high, but I knew the level of our players would also be high.

“We defended well at the start and created opportunities in attack. After we scored, we kept our focus on defending as Hull took more risks and played from the back.

“They created numerical advantages in the middle, but the mentality of our team was strong in defence.

“The result could have been at risk before the second goal, that was key to getting the three points.

“It is simple, when you don’t concede you have at least one point. After that it is important we attack and go for goals.

“The fact that we attack doesn’t mean we have to be defensive, it is about the balance and we had that today.

“We can always improve and keep growing. The collective spirit in the team to defend the points we had was good today.

“The more games that we play together the more stable we can feel.”

Hull boss Grant McCann felt his side had paid the price for a lack of cutting edge.

“We gave ourselves a mountain to climb and I am disappointed,” he said.

“We felt there was a foul in the build up, but we should have defended the corner better. Matty (Ingram) has got to punch it away.

“They started strongly but we rallied after the first 10-15 minutes and got into some good areas.

“We got good balls into the box and it is really disappointing we didn’t get on the end of the crosses.

“Between boxes the play was good, but we have to be more ruthless at this level. We don’t feel we are that far away.

“You have to take your chances when you create them. We have to keep believing and taking chances when they come. It is not just the strikers, it is a team that has to keep believing.

“The players are good enough for this decision and we have to believe that.

“We should have dealt with the first goal better and kept (Duane) Holmes away and got rid of the ball.

“We had big opportunities before that, but we just didn’t take our chances today and that was the difference between the two teams.

“Our general play was good, getting into the final third was some of the best play I have seen but we need to be ruthless.”

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