Bristol City's inability to keep a clean sheet again cost them dear as they slid to narrow defeat at Huddersfield today.
There was nothing between the sides in a largely sterile encounter at the John Smith's Stadium when the Terriers scored the winner out of the blue two minutes before half time.
City skipper Liam Fontaine was at fault as Lee Novak crossed and Sean Scannell netted his first goal since arriving from Crystal Palace in the summer.
City were denied an equaliser when Sam Baldock's second-half shot was cleared off the line, but the visitors could have no complaints.
Manager Derek McInnes's team have now lost five games on the bounce and remain entrenched in the npower Championship relegation zone, without a win to their name since mid-September.
Yet to keep a single clean sheet this season, the Robins have now taken just two points from the last 24 available.
City will feel they missed an opportunity against a Huddersfield side riddled by injury and suspension and they must now pick themselves up ahead of Tuesday's trip to Birmingham.
Determined to make a good impression against his first professional club, City striker Jon Stead carried the fight to Huddersfield during the early stages.
Denied a free kick on the edge of the penalty area when apparently impeded by Terriers skipper Peter Clarke, the Yorkshireman fared rather better when forcing Ollie Norwood into a similar discretion 20 yards from goal.
In the absence of dead ball specialist Stephen Davies, responsibility for the free kick feel to the recalled Albert Adomah, only for the Ghana international to curl his effort harmlessly off-target.
Already without the services of first-choice striker James Vaughan and Jermaine Beckford, Terriers boss Simon Grayson no doubt had cause for concern when Lee Novak, asked to play up front on his own, went to ground under challenge from Marvin Elliott and required lengthy treatment.
He continued to move gingerly thereafter and it was left to Sean Scannell to ask questions of a City defence strengthened by the return of skipper Liam Fontaine.
Displaying an electric change of pace, the former Crystal Palace starlet twice showed Richard Foster a clean pair of heels, only to be let down by his final ball.
Defending stoutly behind two banks of four, the visitors posed a threat on the counter-attack and Sam Baldock was denied a shooting opportunity by Clarke's ;last-ditch challenge after the combative Cole Skuse had robbed Norwood.
Depleted by injury and short on confidence after conceding seven goals in their last two outings, Huddersfield carried little threat going forward until they took the lead two minutes before half time.
Adam Clayton played a straight-line pass down the left channel and Novak shrugged off Fontaine to deliver a low cross that rendered Scannell's close-range finish elementary.
The goal changed the game, making life harder for City and offering Huddersfield all the encouragement they needed to play off the front foot after the break.
Other than pick the ball out of the net, City keeper Dean Gerken had been a virtual spectator during the first half. But he was called into meaningful action for the first time when pushing a powerful shot from Callum Woods behind for a corner after the Robins had again been opened up by an astute pass from Clayton.
His influence growing, Clayton sent a long-range drive whistling over the bar and Gerken then saved with his feet to deny the same player, who met Adam Hammill's lofted cross with a powerful downward header at the far post.
The contest was now opening up and City squandered a great opportunity to equalise in the 63rd minute. Skuse scuffed a cross-***-shot and Baldock, timing his arrival to perfection, looked certain to score, only for Woods to somehow block his low shot on the line.
McInnes then sent on Neil Kilkenny, Ryan Taylor and Martyn Woolford in a bid to salvage a point, but to little effect.
Woolford came close when his shot flew inches over the bar and his centre then narrowly eluded Baldock as the Robins piled on the pressure.
They were denied a point in injury-time when Terriers keeper Alex Smithies made a brilliant finger-tip save to keep out a towering header from Stephen McManus, who was pressed into service as a makeshift striker for the final few minutes.
Huddersfield (4-5-1): Smithies; Woods, Clarke, Lynch, Dixon; Hammill (Ward 74), Clayton (Robinson 80), Southern, Norwood, Scannell (Gerrard 88); Novak.
City (4-3-3): Gerken; Foster, Fontaine, McManus, Briggs; Skuse, Elliott (Kilkenny 64), Pearson (Woolford 80); Adomah, Baldock, Stead (Taylor 76)
Referee: Graham Salisbury (Lancashire).
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