Terriers left with nothing as Cardiff hit late blow

No, not Cardiff City’s new garish red home shirts but the dramatic stoppage-time winner that denied brave Huddersfield Town a deserved point on their return to the Championship.

For 91 minutes, the newly-promoted Terriers had more than matched their hosts and but for the agility of David Marshall in the home goal could even have been ahead.

But then, right at the death in the cruellest of fashions, Town hearts were broken as Mark Hudson ended a goalmouth scramble by firing past Alex Smithies from eight yards.

It was rough on Simon Grayson’s side, though also an indication of just how unforgiving the second tier can be in comparison to League One.

Certainly, it is unlikely that Huddersfield last season will have come up against a goalkeeper in form as inspired as Marshall was last night.

Scott Arfield and Oliver Norwood were both denied twice by acrobatic stops and had just one of those gone in then Malky Mackay’s expensively-assembled Cardiff outfit would surely have had faces to match the colour of their new shirts by the final whistle.

Instead, Hudson’s dramatic late strike spared any blushes for a team strongly fancied to be in the promotion mix after reaching the play-offs in each of the last three seasons.

For Town, returning from the Valleys empty-handed will have been hard to stomach after the endeavour that went into their performance.

But there were still plenty of positives to glean from pushing Cardiff so close and Grayson’s side do look to have the quality to prosper on their return to the second tier after an 11-year absence. What perhaps was the most encouraging aspect of last night’s impressive display against one of the division’s better teams was that it came without last season’s top scorer Jordan Rhodes.

The 40-goal hitman was unavailable through a hamstring injury picked up when he was on international duty with Scotland in midweek.

His absence led to Grayson opting for a formation that allowed all three of the central midfielders he had brought in during the summer to start.

They dove-tailed together neatly with Norwood clearly having an eye for an opening and Adam Clayton passing the ball well, while Keith Southern did much of the mopping up work.

The trio gave the Terriers an excellent foundation to build on and in the first half they ensured Marshall was by far the busier of the two goalkeepers.

His first action of the night came inside eight minutes when a deft pass from Lee Novak released Arfield, who could only hold his head in frustration after seeing his drilled shot blocked by Marshall.

The Cardiff goalkeeper’s save to keep out Norwood’s 30-yard effort five minutes later was equally impressive.

Perhaps Marshall’s best save of the night, however, came just before the break when he clawed away a dipping effort from Norwood that had seemed destined for the net.

As well as Town broke, they also had to get through plenty of defensive work and were relieved when Heldar Helguson’s header bounced to safety after crashing against the crossbar.

The visitors were also happy to see Jordan Mutch blaze wide in the 21st minute from 15 yards after failing to clear their lines as the ball pin-balled around the penalty area.

In the early exchanges of the second half, Cardiff did start to exert more pressure and Town were fortunate to escape just after the hour.

Kevin McNaughton started the move down the right before firing a pass inside for Mutch. He, in turn, hit a shot goalwards that Smithies was unable to hold and Helguson reacted quickest to prod across goal.

Had a Cardiff player been on hand inside the six-yard box then a goal would have resulted but instead Peter Clarke slid across and his block was gratefully pounced on by Smithies.

The Huddersfield goalkeeper then produced a stunning save to keep out McNaughton’s fierce drive after Craig Bellamy had wriggled through down the right.

A sign of the home side’s growing influence came when Clayton and Southern were booked within five minutes of each other for scything tackles on Mutch and Peter Whittingham respectively.

But then, as the game entered the final quarter, it was Town who again regained the initiative as Cardiff seemed to run out of ideas and only a stunning one-handed save by Marshall kept Arfield’s shot out seven minutes from time.

At that stage, a point seemed the very least Huddersfield could expect to show for their efforts.

However, after the fourth official had indicated there would be five minutes of stoppage time, Cardiff launched one final attack and their perseverance paid off when Hudson drilled past Smithies to snatch a dramatic victory.

It meant the fans of the one-time Bluebirds, who had been taunted with chants of ‘are you Wrexham in disguise?’ by their visiting counterparts, had the last laugh on the night.

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Cardiff City: Marshall; McNaughton, Hudson, Turner, Taylor; Cowie (Mason 79), Gunnarsson, Whittingham, Mutch (Kiss 85), Bellamy; Helguson. Unused substitutes: Lewis, Velikonja, Earnshaw, Conway, Blake.

Huddersfield Town: Smithies; Hunt, P Clarke, Lynch, Dixon; Arfield (Gerrard 90), Southern, Clayton, Norwood, Scannell (Spencer 90); Novak. Unused substitutes: Bennett, Woods, Lee, Robinson, Higginbotham.

Referee: R East (Wiltshire).