Huddersfield Town missed a chance to climb out of the Premier League relegation zone when they were held to a 1-1 home draw by West Ham United in an entertaining clash on Saturday.
The result left Huddersfield second-bottom on seven points from 12 games, a point behind Cardiff City, Southampton and Crystal Palace, who were later hosting Tottenham Hotspur.
Alex Pritchard gave Huddersfield a sixth-minute lead with a scuffed shot from 16 metres which somehow trickled past West Ham keeper Lukasz Fabianski before Felipe Anderson levelled for the London side with a fine 74th-minute goal.
Pritchard rued allowing West Ham to get back into the match.
“It’s probably two points dropped,” he told the BBC. “It’s very disappointing, especially off the back of a win against Fulham.
“The first half was a much better performance than the whole Fulham game. But in the second half we dropped off and let them back into the game.
“It’s difficult to take but we just have to pick ourselves up. We will keep going until the very last minute.”
The match got off to a flying start as Fabianski kept out a Steve Mounie header and Marko Arnautovic missed a gilt-edged chance at the other end before Pritchard took advantage of a defensive error to delight the home fans.
West Ham were fortunate not to fall two goals behind in the first half as Philip Billing’s swerving cross-turned-shot came off the inside of the post and Mounie forced another good save from the busy Fabianski.
West Ham dominated after the break and almost turned the match on its head after the equaliser, when Issa Diop saw his thumping header cleared off the line by Aaron Mooy.
Midfielder Robert Snodgrass was pleased with a point.
“We believed we could win the game but we didn’t start well enough. The manager (Manuel Pellegrini) made changes, we got the equaliser and had a few chances to win it,” said the Scot.
“It’s a great finish from Felipe Anderson, what we want is to see him doing regularly. It’s up to us now to help and support him. We’ve shown that spirit that maybe wasn’t there over the last few years. A draw is probably a fair result.”
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