Mark Fotheringham calls for calmness from Huddersfield after beating Millwall

Mark Fotheringham has called for “calmness” after Huddersfield moved off the foot of the Sky Bet Championship table with victory over Millwall.

The Terriers took the lead inside nine minutes when Yuta Nakayama’s miscued cross looped into the visitors’ net.

Sorba Thomas struck the foot of the post and Jack Rudoni twice went close as the second-tier strugglers dominated the tie.

Gary Rowett’s side mustered only one shot on target as the Lions’ run of four successive victories was brought to a dismal end.

New Huddersfield boss Fotheringham oversaw the second victory of his tenure as they leapfrogged West Brom at the bottom.

He said: “I’m really satisfied with the group and their endeavour and work ethic today – it’s given us a good platform to build on.

“They’re really starting to grow as a group and we just need to bring a calmness to everything and not get too disappointed if we lose.

“All we want to do this season is stay in the league because we know the club’s in a transitional period.

“The players have never lost confidence at any time and they’re really focused on their training and it’s coming to fruition.

“I want fit and aggressive players and from front to back we looked solid. We’re making ourselves a hard team to play against now; we’re looking very strong.

“They know that we just need to be solid and keep going and roll their sleeves up. We know what it takes to stay in this division and we’re working towards that.

“I just want to be solid and keep as many clean sheets as we can. You can see teams are finding it hard to play through us now.

“We know our targets as a group and we’re just focused on staying in this league and bringing stability to everything.”

The visitors had to wait until the 44th minute for their first effort as they struggled to break through a resilient Huddersfield side.

Tyler Burey nearly handed the Lions an unlikely leveller late on, but a backtracking Lee Nicholls saved on the goal-line to compound a frustrating afternoon for Millwall.

Boss Rowett said: “They’re fighting for their lives and we knew it’d be a tough game if we didn’t do the right things.

“We’ve had four wins on the bounce and, as a manager, you always have that concern in the back of your mind about these types of games.

“You have to hand Huddersfield credit; I thought they worked incredibly hard and they looked like a team absolutely desperate to get that win.

“Second half, we were better, but again we didn’t put good balls into good areas, and we went too direct in the last 10 minutes.

“It was one of those games where we just couldn’t quite make it happen and we have to accept that.

“I could be really greedy and have a go at the players, but I think they’ve tried, and we’ve just not performed how we have in the last four games.

“Huddersfield worked just about hard enough to keep us at bay, and we didn’t quite have the quality to open them up.

“The reality is, we could have had another five minutes and we probably wouldn’t have got that goal. We’ve just got to walk away, lick our wounds and take it on the chin.”