Michael Duff hits out at Huddersfield Town refereeing decision after narrow Stockport County win

Huddersfield Town’s victory over Stockport County extended their League One winning streak to 12 games, which thrilled manager Michael Duff.

At the conclusion of the Terriers’ first assault, Lewis Bate deflected a cross from Brodie Spencer into the Stockport net, and despite controlling the play, the visitors were unable to respond.

However, a sloppy challenge on Josh Koroma cost Town a penalty in the first half, leaving Duff furious.

“It’s a good win against a good team,” he remarked. Strangely, you can score too early at times, like when we did, because all of your game plans, including those for them, nearly fall apart.

“I think the referee’s decision to not give a penalty is a big moment in the game, because if it’s a penalty and if we score, I think there’s a totally different outlook on the game.

“Second half, particularly, we were really loose with the ball. We didn’t keep it well, we didn’t put any passes together, and then ended up just sitting in.

We had some chances but they had the big chance – but I don’t think there were loads of chances in the game.

We were resilient, but can be better, absolutely. But it’s finding a way to win and we’ve played better than that in other games this year and lost. So I’m not under-valuing it either, because it’s a good win and Stockport are a good team.”

Stockport chief Dave Challinor cut a frustrated figure after watching his side lose ground in the promotion race. Challinor said: “It was a horrible start to the game, which it goes without saying can’t happen.

“I thought we had some good moments throughout the game, but didn’t have the quality in the final third of the pitch to get the goal.

“Maybe our play deserved it, maybe not, but we’ve had two gilt-edged opportunities at the start of the second half that we’ve not taken. That’s the difference in terms of the levels when you come up against the teams that are at the top of the division

“You’ve got to take those chances, because I’m not sure how many opportunities on goal Huddersfield have had, yet we’ve lost the game.

“We had good control of the first half, and if I’m being critical we could have played forward more: they were too negative and played backward to the goalkeeper. But we’ve had some good moments within that.

“You have to produce on a given day and we’re disappointed that we go away from here – which was always going to be a tough place to come – with nothing from the game, based on what we’ve done in it.”