Darren Moore delighted to secure first win as Huddersfield boss with QPR victory

Posted Sunday, October 22, 2023 by PA

Huddersfield boss Darren Moore was delighted after finally getting his first win since taking over at the Championship club with a 2-1 victory over struggling QPR.

But the former Sheffield Wednesday manager still wants more from his side, despite ending a five-game winless run with victory.

A six-minute double from Kian Harratt and Jack Rudoni did the damage for the hosts.

Jake Clarke-Salter pulled one back with his first QPR goal, but the Terriers held on for a vital three points.

“First and foremost I’m delighted with the three points,” said Moore. “I’m pleased we were able to get the three points in front of the home fans.

“We set off so well and scored two perfect goals, but then it was like we pressed the pause button.

“I commend the players for staying resolute though. And can I just say Michal (Helik), Matty (Pearson) and (Tom Lees) Leesy are proper centre-backs.

“It was top drawer defending from Michal to make that goal-line clearance in the second half.

“We now have a lot of work to do on how we maintain that pressure from the first 20 minutes.

“I thought the substitutes that came on the pitch gave us good energy to maintain things too.

“There’s a lot for us to learn, but I have to take the positives from a win like that.”

The Hoops are languishing in the Championship relegation zone after a fourth defeat in a row.

They have gone seven games without a win and boss Gareth Ainsworth said: “We were too sloppy at the start of the game. We started the game like we knew Huddersfield would score before we kicked ourselves into action.

“At 2-0 down you give yourself a mountain to climb. We almost climbed it.

“There’s a saying in football that it’s about both boxes, it doesn’t matter how good you are outside of the boxes.

“Huddersfield were better in our box than we were in their box. We weren’t clinical enough or got the final touch to rescue a point or maybe get three.

“I truly thought we were the better team second half, but it came to nothing.

“The start was unexpected, sometimes it goes that way. Some teams in this league will be better than us man-for-man, but that wasn’t the case.

“We made it too easy for them. I’m missing a few crucial names, but I’ve got a good squad and we need to be better than that.

“I’m pretty sure we’ll finish above the line, but it will be a tough season without a doubt.

“I don’t know what the stats are in the Championship for winning from 2-0 down, but I’m sure it’s a crazy stat.

“But we need to react quickly. We need to dust ourselves off because we can’t feel sorry for us.

“Things just aren’t going for us at the minute but we’ll go on a good run soon – we’re on a bad run at the moment but it will come. We can go to West Brom and turn them over, definitely.”