Neil Warnock believes Huddersfield are in with a fighting chance of avoiding relegation from the Sky Bet Championship after his second spell as Terriers manager got off to the perfect start with a 2-1 win over Birmingham.
Joseph Hungbo and Jaheim Headley scored their first goals for Town either side of half-time to bring them from behind after Troy Deeney had given Birmingham an early lead.
Huddersfield’s victory, their first since December 29 to end an eight-match winless run in all competitions, moves them up one place in the table to 22nd and two points away from safety.
And Warnock believes Town have what it takes to beat the drop, with the victory “keeping them in the pack” despite having difficult fixtures ahead, including league leaders Burnley next Saturday.
“I think it’s good for the club (me coming in as manger) at the minute because they haven’t got to rush into appointing anybody,” he said.
“We’ve got an outside chance of staying up when you look at the tough fixtures, but we’ll give it a go and I said to the lads ‘whatever happens, I want to enjoy myself’.
“I want the fans to go home happy, I want you lot to go home happy.
“And the fans, to stay behind like they did after that, that was a bit emotional walking around the pitch at the end.”
Warnock made seven changes to the team that started the 3-0 midweek defeat at Stoke, with only Tom Lees, Headley, Jack Rudoni and captain Jonathan Hogg keeping their places.
However, the hosts found themselves behind in the sixth minute, when Birmingham captain Deeney bundled the ball home from close range after former Huddersfield man Juninho Bacuna’s left-footed cross.
Huddersfield responded well and drew level in the 25th minute, hitting the visitors on the break from a corner, with Headley feeding Hungbo down the left and the Watford loanee cutting inside before firing into the top corner.
The second half started in lively fashion, with Deeney’s diving header hitting the post seconds after the restart.
And within a few minutes Huddersfield scored what proved to be the winning goal as Maxime Colin misjudged Nicholas Bilokapic’s long kick and allowed Headley to get in behind and drill the ball into the bottom corner.
“There’s nobody that I could single out,” Warnock said of the performance.
“Every one of them did their jobs today, some out of position.
“I was told on Thursday morning that [Michal] Helik and [Danny] Ward wouldn’t be fit and they both played.
“Hoggy played with an injury as well, so the senior players have done well.”
Birmingham have now suffered back-to-back defeats and remain in 18th place, seven points above Huddersfield in the relegation places.
Manager John Eustace was extremely disappointed with the way his side let the game slip away from a winning position, but felt a draw would have been a fair result.
“I think we knew they’d be a bit more direct, which we stood up to,” he said.
“Though up until they scored I felt we were in control of the game.
“It’s just one of those games where I didn’t think we deserved to lose the game. We did enough to at least get a point and the most pleasing thing for me is my players, their attitude to keep going.
“They were very positive and they showed that fighting spirit.”
