‘VAR would have meant justice for Town’ insists boss

HUDDERSFIELD Town boss Andre Breitenreiter has claimed his players were left crying in the dressing room after the late blow of a Bristol City equaliser.

The Terriers appeared to be heading for a vital victory in their battle to beat the drop when Josh Koroma opened the scoring at Ashton Gate in the 81st minute. However, a Nahki Wells penalty deep into stoppage time broke Huddersfield hearts.

Ollie Turton was judged to have handled a Cameron Pring cross but Breitenreiter was unhappy with the decision. Speaking after the game, he once again insisted the Championship needs VAR.

He said: “I have said before that the Championship needs VAR for sure and this moment proved it. We don’t think it was a penalty and a referee needs to be 150 per cent sure to award one in the 98th minute. VAR would have meant justice for my team. I spoke to the referee afterwards and she explained her reasons for the decision, but that doesn’t change anything.

“I feel so sorry for my players because they are crying in the dressing room, yet their performance today was all I could have asked. We played as a team for 90 minutes, working hard throughout and created chances.

“Maybe we should have scored a second goal, but we defended well as a team, which is what we needed in more games in the past. You could tell the Bristol City fans were unhappy with their team at half-time and that shows how well we played. Ollie Turton is in the dressing room trying to apologise for a mistake. But he didn’t make a mistake.”

A win would have left Huddersfield sat above the bottom three, but the equaliser pushed the Terriers into the drop zone.

Breitenreiter added: “It isn’t the first time a big decision has gone against us. But I would rather talk about the performance.

“The players are so disappointed, but they shouldn’t be because they did so well.

“Now we have two home games in the final three and have to play with the same attitude.”

Bristol City: O'Leary, McCrorie, Tanner, Roberts, Sykes, M James, Williams (Mehmeti 71), Pring, Knight, Conway (Wells 66), Twine. Unused substitutes: Cornick, King, GardnerHickman, Bajic, Knight-Lebel, Backwell, Mebude.

Huddersfield Town: Nicholls, Pearson, Helik, Lees, Spencer, Thomas (Turton 90), Matos (Healey 80), Kasumu, Koroma (Headley 86), Rudoni, Burgzorg. Unused substitutes: Radulovic, Maxwell, Edwards, Wiles, Ward, Jackson.

Referee: R Welch (England).