Report and highlights as David Wagner's side climb to 14th
Sunday 25 November 2018 20:01, UK
Aaron Mooy scored twice as Huddersfield surged off the bottom of the Premier League with a 2-0 victory over Wolves at Molineux.
Aggressive without the ball and dangerous with it, Huddersfield looked far from a relegation-threatened side and they moved up six places to 14th thanks to two crisp finishes (6, 74) from their Australia star.
After recent struggles on the road, this was Huddersfield's first away win of the campaign and just the third in their last 23 away days.
It was just the second time in 23 games that David Wagner's men had scored twice in a single game and they could have had more against an out-of-sorts Wolves, who are now five without a win.
Huddersfield have a special affinity with Molineux, having won on five of their last six visits and they settled into their stride against the lacklustre hosts.
Erik Durm accelerated past Matt Doherty too easily on six minutes and his cross was caressed into the corner of the net by Mooy for his first goal in 29 Premier League games.
Huddersfield's midfield domination and energy should have yielded further rewards but Steve Mounie and Terence Kongolo both fluffed very promising headed chances.
Adama Traore was called from the bench by Nuno Espirito Santo at the break and he injected spark and excitement into what had been a lifeless Wolves performance. His chipped cross on 57 minutes was headed towards goal by Raul Jimenez but somehow Philip Billing hooked the ball off the line.
It was the first of a couple more openings for Jimenez, but the Wolves striker seemed to lack confidence with his final finish as Huddersfield hung in there.
Just as Wagner's men were looking vulnerable, Mooy struck again to seal the points, taking aim with a 20-yard free-kick that skipped off the turf and flew into the net.
"Can we play you every week," the away fans sang. Wolves had no response.
A monstrous display, especially when you consider he played 80 minutes for Australia on Tuesday. Wagner hailed him as "extraordinary" and it was hard to argue.
Sublime in possession and energetic when pressing the life out of Wolves, the Australian added goals to his game to provide the visitors a deserving maximum points haul. The £10million spent by the club to secure his services from Manchester City in 2017 surely is the best bit of business the club has ever done. He's becoming legendary within the Terriers ranks.
Nuno Espirito Santo: "It was a bad performance. We played badly today and Huddersfield were the better team. It was not a good day for us and we didn't perform well.
"There were too many mistakes and there are things we have to improve. This week we have to make a deep reflection on what we want and how we want to play."
David Wagner: "We know we are not as poor as maybe everybody thinks we are. We have shown good performances this season so far without enough goals and enough points but performance wise, this was more often very good.
"Today, the players got the reward and I'm so happy for them because they really deserve it. Apart from the two goals, we have another clean sheet which was important and we look very solid defensively as well."
Wolves are back in front of Sky Sports cameras on Friday night when they take on Cardiff, while Huddersfield have a home fixture with Brighton next Saturday.
