By Colin Thompson

in Huddersfield

By Colin Thompson in Huddersfield

Huddersfield Town 1 Wigan Athletic 0

Nahki Wells and his Huddersfield Town team-mates breathed a sigh of relief after getting back to winning ways in front of a crowd of nearly 16,000 at a blustery and chilly John Smith’s Stadium on Saturday.

Adam Clayton’s 85th-minute thunderbolt from outside of the area proved to be enough as the home team handed visiting Wigan Athletic a 1-0 defeat that halted a three-game slide in the Sky Bet Championship, and four games in all competitions.

“It was important we got the win to push us farther and farther away from the drop zone,” Wells told The Royal Gazette. “It was a tough game because Wigan are a tough team that is gunning for promotion.”

A game that promised much never lived up to expectations with clear-cut chances far and few between. This was largely because of the strong winds and a wet pitch that deprived the game of any real quality.

But just when it seemed as though both teams would have to settle for a share of the spoils, Clayton, with the wind at his back, squeezed a shot from 20 yards between Ali Al Habsi, the Wigan Athletic goalkeeper, and his near post to send the home fans into raptures.

“The conditions made it tough game,” Wells said. “The pitch wasn’t in the best

condition, but to grind out and get the win is important for what has been a tough time for us.”

The win, Huddersfield’s tenth of the season, lifted them one place in the

Championship into thirteenth with 37 points from 29 matches.

While there would be no repeat of Wells’s heroics on his debut at the John Smith’s Stadium last month, the Bermudian showed encouraging signs during his 61 minutes of action, before making way for Danny Ward, that he is fast adapting to Huddersfield’s possession style of play.

Although he saw very little of the ball running into the wind during the opening half, Wells linked the play nicely in the attacking third whenever in possession, using good ball control and the sort of crisp first touch that Mark Robins, the Huddersfield manager,

demands from his players.

The former Dandy Town man, who joined Huddersfield for a club-record fee during the January transfer window, was limited to one half-chance, if that, from the

tightest of angles that was blocked.

“It was tough to turn them, really,” Wells said. “To get at them, everything was coming back at us and the chances really didn’t fall for us. But it was more important to get the win and, fortunately, we did.”

Huddersfield, who were guilty on a few occasions of giving the ball away cheaply, rode their luck at times, as Wigan threatened for long spells.

The visiting side, who had lost only once in their previous 12 matches, came close to breaking the deadlock when Marc-Antoine Fortune, the French attacker, had a deflected shot brush the bar. Martyn Waghorn, the attacking midfielder who is on loan from league leaders Leicester City, fired into the side-netting and had a header saved by Alex Smithies, the Huddersfield goalkeeper.

The home side enjoyed their fair share of possession as well and should have done better when striker James Vaughan, returning from injury, got behind the Wigan defence, but shot high and wide.

The former Everton striker also failed to get a boot to an Adam Hammil cross and had a powerful header tipped over the bar by an alert Al Habsi.

Oliver Norwood, the Huddersfield midfielder, gave an ominous sign of things to come in the 80th minute with a 40-yard free kick that crashed on to the bar before being safely gathered by a

relieved Al Habsi.

But Wigan’s luck finally ran out five minutes later when Clayton beat Habsi for pace at the near post to

punctuate a period of sustained Huddersfield dominance.