Huddersfield boss Lee Grant frustrated after losing to 10-man Stockport

Huddersfield manager Lee Grant was left hugely frustrated that his side failed to turn up against 10-man Stockport and ended up losing at home for the first time this season in League One.

County scored either side of Tyler Onyango’s red card – Ollie Norwood from the penalty spot, then Odin Bailey on the counter-attack – before Bojan Radulovic headed home a consolation goal for the Terriers.

Grant said: “I’m frustrated because I thought there was a nervousness about us to begin the game, and I’ve not seen that from us as a group.

“There’s no indicators to give me any warning of that throughout the week or in terms of the attitude towards it pre-game, but we don’t start the game with the right level, and you then allow a good team to find a foothold and some momentum.

“I think our poor start gave the opposition energy, and you can’t afford to do that. So a good lesson for us there, but surprising for me, because of the way the group have worked and what they’ve shown.

“We’ve come away from some of the core things that have helped us be really successful at home. Regardless of who has come here, they’ve had a really tough afternoon – I don’t think that will be Stockport’s most difficult game. We were well below our level.

“It’s a great lesson that you can’t afford to drop your level, and it really did snowball.”

Grant felt the penalty decision against Joe Low for a shirt pull was debatable, but admitted his side had got away with one earlier in the game after Josh Feeney’s sliding tackle from behind was waved away.

Stockport boss Dave Challinor agreed, saying: “We maybe had a bit of good fortune with the penalty – there is a shirt pull, but it’s minimal, it’s soft.

“But I’ll counter that by saying we had a nailed-on penalty turned down after 15 minutes, so I think it balances itself out on the day.

“I thought we deserved to win. We had some adversity in terms of going down to 10 men and then after getting ourselves in front, conceding in the last minute to make the last two or three minutes or so edgy.

“But we played some brilliant stuff in the first half an hour and should have been in front. We get ourselves in front on the stroke of half-time, and we’ve then dealt with going down to 10 men seven minutes into the second half.

“It then becomes a difficult 40 minutes against a really good team, but I’m really proud of the way we’ve dug in. I’m disappointed with the goal that we’ve conceded from a set piece, but it’s three points.”