Two Huddersfield goals inside the first 25 minutes made it seven games without a win for Wednesday and keeps us firmly at the foot of the Championship table.
The encouraging signs for the first 80 minute at Norwich on Saturday were a distant memory from the off at the John Smith’s Stadium tonight as we stood off the opposition from the start and got what we deserved … nothing.
It leaves us without a win under Tony Pulis since he took charge six games ago and we sit at the bottom of the division, two points adrift of Derby and Wycombe – who play tomorrow night – and four from safety.
Wednesday didn’t look up for the fight from the start and it was no surprise when the home side took the lead on 11 minutes.
There was a total lack of challenges as Huddersfield worked a move across our penalty area and when it came to Josh Koroma, he took the ball past Dominic Iorfa before clipping low across Joe Wildsmith into the far corner.
Koroma went close again soon afterwards but that was a short-lived reprieve for Wednesday, with Huddersfield going two-up on 24 minutes.
Liam Palmer, on as an early sub for head injury victim Julian Borner, gave a free kick away after Tom Lees was caught in possession and Isaac Mbenza stepped up to send the 25-yard free kick high into the top corner, Wildsmith getting a hand to the ball but unable to keep it out.
We rallied briefly towards the end of the half with an Adam Reach cross just evading Callum Paterson and Josh Windass heading wide.
Any hopes of a second-half fightback looked to have disappeared soon after the restart when Iorfa brought down Juninho Bacuna inside the penalty area but the Huddersfield player got up to take the resultant spot kick and fired wide.
Kadeem Harris shot into the side netting soon afterwards and, with Huddersfield seemingly content to play a holding game, we had more of the possession.
However, despite forcing a few corners we continued to lack the will-to-win and failed to deliver the killer pass or cutting edge to really trouble the home side … summed up in added time when Jordan Rhodes, looking yards offside in the box but not flagged, fired straight at Ben Hamer.
Wildsmith, Odubajo, Borner (Palmer 21), Lees, Iorfa, Harris, Bannan (Brown 85), Luongo (Pelupessy 46), Reach, Paterson (Kachunga 80), Windass (Rhodes 80). Subs. Dawson, Van Aken, Penney, Dele-Bashiru.