Huddersfield manager Carlos Corberan hailed his team’s ability to overcome adversity following a 3-2 home win over Blackpool.
Corberan highlighted three key moments of the game that demonstrated his players’ spirit as the Terriers moved into the Championship’s top six.
The 38-year-old Spaniard was impressed with their reaction to falling behind after just 45 seconds to Jerry Yates’ goal, then to a head injury that saw Tom Lees substituted following nine minutes of treatment and, finally, to a disallowed Jordan Rhodes goal when the hosts trailed 2-1 after Jordan Gabriel had been red-carded for Blackpool just past the hour.
Sorba Thomas went on to clinch victory with two goals in the space of four minutes, after Gary Madine had earlier fired the visitors in front for a second time following Danny Ward’s third-minute equaliser.
Corberan, who confirmed Lees had recovered from his injury, said: “It would have been easy to have been frustrated by the three big moments that went against us – their first-minute goal, Tom Lees’ injury and Jordan Rhodes’ disallowed goal for offside but, on each of those occasions, the players kept their spirit.
“In the team meeting before the game, we were talking about how showing a collective spirit is very necessary.
“In the first half, we did not manage the second balls well enough and that’s why we conceded the second goal. We tried to fix that in the second half and we also made their defenders defend more and had the individual quality with our final shots and passes to score the goals we needed.
“The players knew how important a game it was because Boxing Day is no ordinary day in this country – there are always more families at the games and we didn’t want to leave them disappointed.”
Blackpool manager Neil Critchley, meanwhile, felt Gabriel’s dismissal – his second of the season – was “very harsh” and the contest’s turning point.
He said: “I thought we had been the better team and were comfortable to that point, but it’s very difficult to play the last 30 minutes with 10 men away from home and that decision had a massive impact on the outcome of the game.
“I don’t want to go on about referees, but it’s very difficult not to when he had such a big bearing on the game and I thought both bookings were very harsh.
“I’ve seen the clip back for the second yellow and Jordan is running forward and the ball is going out of play and their lad goes to play it down the line and then jumps in the air. He’s an experienced player who knew the situation and acted as if Jordan had crashed into him, but there was no contact at all.
“We can also talk about the first booking, because every foul isn’t a yellow card and I think referees need to take a breather and think about things before they show them.”
