Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Huddersfield Town and Blackburn Rovers at the John Smith's Stadium on Boxing Day | Jaheim Headley, Sorba Thomas and Delano Burgzorg steer in Terriers win.
Tuesday 26 December 2023 18:45, UK
Huddersfield moved five points clear of the Championship relegation zone with a 3-0 Boxing Day win over disappointing Blackburn.
Jaheim Headley's low strike handed the Terriers a first-half advantage which was added to after the break by Sorba Thomas and Delano Burgzorg as Darren Moore's side opened up a five-point gap to the bottom three.
Town headed into the encounter sitting just above the drop zone and on a winless run of five matches, while Rovers had lost four out of their last five clashes and sat 14th in the standings.
Following early Blackburn pressure, Thomas collected David Kasumu's right-wing cross to chest down and slice over from inside the box after four minutes.
At the other end, Niall Ennis had Rovers' first real chance before the 10-minute mark but fired straight at Town keeper Chris Maxwell.
Ben Wiles rose the highest from Thomas' corner not long after but Leopold Wahlstedt was untroubled in the Blackburn goal.
Town then went close to taking the lead when Kasumu found Thomas and Wahlstedt showed great reactions to parry to safety.
Rovers winger Arnor Sigurdsson was not far away after latching onto Sammie Szmodics's lay-off for a sublime curling effort which flew just over.
The chances continue to come and Dominic Hyam diverted Headley's dangerous low cross over his own goal, before Burgzorg's mazy and persistent run down the right was eventually snuffed out by Rovers.
The hosts made the breakthrough in the 28th minute when Headley took aim and his low drive went straight under Wahlstedt too easily to put the Terriers in front.
Jack Rudoni rose highest to meet Thomas' free-kick as Huddersfield sought a second but Wahlstedt was equal to it, while injured Town goalkeeper Maxwell was replaced before half-time by Jacob Chapman for his Championship debut.
Szmodics nearly capped off a flowing Rovers move in stoppage time but curled just over as the hosts led at the break.
After half-time, Blackburn top scorer Szmodics delivered a dangerous cross which just missed the arriving Ennis and Chapman parried behind.
The hosts doubled their lead 10 minutes into the second half when Burgzorg slotted across goal for a free Thomas to bury past Wahlstedt.
Shortly after that, Huddersfield wanted a penalty when Rudoni went down under Wahlstedt's challenge but replays showed the Rovers stopper clearly got the ball.
It mattered little for Town though as they made it 3-0 in the 68th minute to all but wrap up the win, substitute Josh Koroma putting Burgzorg in and the Huddersfield attacker's shot slipped under Wahlstedt.
Jake Garrett's 78th-minute free-kick sailed harmlessly over as Rovers sought to reduce the deficit, with Callum Brittain's long-range drive also off target as the Terriers held firm to claim three valuable points.
Huddersfield's Darren Moore:
"It's about changing the mindset of the club and the perception and us as a group of players, fans, and everything else. We just want to continue looking up the league and seeing who we can catch above.
"That's got to be the mindset really, in terms of it was a good three points today, and we focus on Friday for another real rough encounter, another good team coming into town and for myself and the group, we know we're under no illusions how difficult that game is going to be.
"The biggest thing for us today, we knew Blackburn are a very, very good fluid team with the ball, they move it around really well but we knew the transitions would be massive today.
"We knew if we could get part one right in terms of our work off the ball, we knew when it turned over there would be areas to exploit and we managed to do that."
Blackburn's Jon Dahl Tomasson:
"I think it was a disappointing result and a disappointing performance. We all knew coming here Huddersfield is around the relegation zone and they are fighting.
"You need a top performance and we didn't do that, it was probably the worst performance during the season.
"It's not a performance we're used to seeing, so it's of course extremely disappointing.
"I think when we conceded the first goal, initially there was nothing wrong in conceding the first goal, but it gave confidence to the crowd and for the Huddersfield players and then we were chasing the game. I must apologise to our fans, almost 3,000 fans that have travelled, it's not positive today at all.
"The good thing with football is that there's a game in a couple of days and I think that's positive. That's one of the things that is positive today, but the rest is not good."
