Aaron Mooy earns Huddersfield rare away victory against Wolves to climb out of bottom three

Wolves 0-2 Huddersfield: The Australia international midfielder found the net in each half as the Terriers were deserved winners at Molineux

Sean Taylor
Sunday 25 November 2018 19:10 GMT
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Aaron Mooy struck twice as Huddersfield beat Wolves
Aaron Mooy struck twice as Huddersfield beat Wolves (Getty Images)

Huddersfield Town picked up their first away victory since February against a woeful Wolves, who were booed off at Molineux.

David Wagner's side climbed off the bottom of the Premier League to 14th and were hugely deserving of their first win on the road since February 24 as Aaron Mooy scored his first goals in 11 months.

It was their first three points in nine trips after Mooy struck on six and 74 minutes, for his first goals in 29 Premier League games.

This result made it seven points from nine as Huddersfield turned in a comprehensive performance against a disappointing Wolves.

Wolves have now gone five matches without a win and never looked like ending that run here in their worst performance of the season.

Huddersfield, with just two points from 15 on their travels this season, took a shock early lead. Mooy was left all alone to steer home a first-time shot from just outside the box after Wolves failed to cut out Erik Durm's cross from the left.

Wolves struggled to create chances against a determined Huddersfield side, for whom Mooy and Alex Pritchard were a threat.

Aaron Mooy gets across to challenge Wolves' Ruben Vinagre (Reuters)

Huddersfield showed their steel in the 17th minute when Tommy Smith earned a deserved booking for clattering Helder Costa. Terence Kongolo then saw two headers fly straight at Rui Patricio, the Wolves goalkeeper, from corners as the visitors looked strong at set-pieces.

The Terriers were winning the battle in midfield, where Ruben Neves and Joao Moutinho were being quickly hassled out of their stride by the visitors. Those two weren't the only ones who were guilty of losing possession though as Ivan Cavaleiro had a particularly uncomfortable first half for nervy Wolves.

Aaron Mooy fires Huddersfield in front (Getty Images)

Huddersfield went close to making it 2-0 in time added on when Mounie's goalbound header from a corner hit Doherty, before Wolves were booed off at half-time.

Nuno Espirito Santo, the Wolves head coach, made a double substitution at the break in a bid to drag his side back into the game. On came Morgan Gibbs-White, the midfielder, and Adam Traore, the £18m record signing, for Moutinho and Cavaleiro. But it made little difference as Huddersfield remained firm against little resistance initially.

Wolves went desperately close to equalising, from their first chance in the 56th minute. Traore wriggled to the byline and crossed to the far post where Raul Jimemez's downward header was cleared off the line by Philip Billing. Replays showed the ball was almost all over the line, maybe a grass blade's width away.

Mounie curled a shot narrowly wide for Huddersfield, but that chance was against the run of play as Wolves finally began to bite.

Jonathan Hogg, the Huddersfield midfielder, was booked for tripping Vinagre just outside the box and Neves hit the defensive wall from the resulting free kick.

Wolves went much closer on 66 minutes when Jimenez wasted a glorious chance after the grounded Kongolo left him onside and clean through from Doherty's pass. The on-loan Benfica forward could only stab across goal when he really should have shot earlier.

Huddersfield threatened on the break when Mounie teed up Alex Pritchard for a drilled effort which was smothered by Patricio. But the Terriers weren't finished and Mooy grabbed his and his team's second goal, when he curled home a 25-yard free kick 16 minutes from time.

Wolves will surely be asking questions about the goal as the ball drifted between Neves on the outside of the defensive wall and Costa just beyond it, while Patricio got a good hand on it before it squeezed just inside the near post.

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