Grayson refusing to give up despite agony of late defeat

The Terriers sit eight points adrift of second-placed Sheffield United after crashing to a 2-1 defeat at Carlisle United.

Huddersfield do have a game in hand – at Leyton Orient tomorrow night – on both the Blades and Owls, who are two points behind their city rivals, but there can be little doubt that Saturday was a bad day for the West Yorkshire club.

Despite that, Grayson refuses to concede anything in the three-way Yorkshire scrap to join runaway leaders Charlton Athletic in next season’s Championship.

The Town manager said: “There is still plenty to play for. We have to bounce back on Tuesday at Leyton Orient and we will keep going to the very end.

“A lot of results can still happen that may go for or against us so we have to win that game in hand and see where it takes us this time next week after the Sheffield Wednesday match.”

Huddersfield were condemned to their first defeat in nine games under Grayson by a dramatic 95th-minute winner from Carlisle striker Lee Miller.

An innocuous looking punt forward from Danny Livesey created the goal as Miller was left unmarked by the Terriers’ defence in the penalty area, a lapse in concentration that was then compounded by goalkeeper Alex Smithies fatally hesitating when he should have come to claim.

Grayson said: “The back four pushed on and Alex has to come and wipe everything out. I don’t think he even left the ground to punch it. It was a soft goal as their lad was just able to head it over him. At that stage, you think, ‘Okay, we will take 1-1’.

“After we equalised (through Lee Novak in the 80th minute), I thought we were the dominant team. I thought we started to run them into the ground and just needed the breaks. We hit the post through Alan Lee but, over the course of the game, we didn’t deserve it.

“Based on the first-half performance, we could have been dead and buried. Our retention of the ball was poor, our workrate was poor and they had most of the play

“We said at half-time that there are defining moments in a season when you get away with things and then push on.

“We had got away with the first half and had an opportunity to do a lot better but didn’t push on. That is disappointing.

“Five minutes into the half, a player switches off to allow an opponent past him and we are 1-0 down (through a goal from former Town Academy graduate James Berrett).

“We got back into it but all round I thought we were completely contrasting to what we had done the previous week against Charlton (when winning 1-0).

“Our passing was poor and we didn’t work hard enough. That is frustrating when we had done so well the week before.”

[email protected]

Town match report and analysis: Page 5.