Kachunga hands McClaren his first defeat

Elias Kachunga’s late header ended Derby County’s four game unbeaten run as Steve McClaren suffered a 1-0 loss in his first defeat since his re-appointment.

Kachunga’s header came from a cross by second half substitute Harry Bunn and his header past Scott Carson sent Huddersfield up to third in the Championship table level on points with the automatic promotion places.

Derby County drop one place to 21^st position only two points clear of the relegation zone and newly appointed manager McClaren said “The defeat was very cruel and we didn’t deserve that”.

Huddersfield looked very nervous in defence particularly in the early stages of the game with Derby’s attack causing some nervous clearances from Town goalkeeper Danny Ward.

Czech Republic international Matej Vydra had two good chances to put the visitors ahead, the first coming off a great cross by Cyrus Christie but the forward was unable to direct his header on target. The second came via a Will Hughes cross that Vydra connected to, however his powerful close range volley flew straight over the cross bar.

Hughes himself also had a good effort midway through the first half which curled just past the far post from outside the penalty area.

Nahki Wells had a great chance to put the hosts in to the lead, some fantastic play down the left side from Town eventually found its way to full back Chris Lowe. His driven cross picked out Wells and his shot forced a great save from goalkeeper Scott Carson.

Derby came close to getting a late winner. A superb lofted pass by Cyrus Christie to Tom Ince put the winger through on goal; his effort forced a superb save from ‘keeper Ward.

The late goal caused heartache for the Rams as they had a lot of chances to gain at least a point from the game. Steve McClaren said; “The players were magnificent today, we just need to be able to perform like that for 95 minutes”.

He added; “There were three or four mistakes, we thought we’d be able to see the game out”.

The win for Huddersfield puts them back to winning ways after consecutive defeats to Sheffield Wednesday and Preston North End in the past week.

Winning manager David Wagner said; “It was a fantastic game of football”. He added; “It was intense and full of chances that we should have taken earlier in the second half”.