Huddersfield underlined their own promotional credentials with a win over Fulham, leaving all other contenders to believe anything is still possible.
First half goals from Danny Ward and Duane Holmes the latter from the penalty spot – proved just enough for the Terriers.
Bobby De Cordova-Reid pulled back late for Marco Silva’s side, who still have a comfortable lead over the Championship top.
Huddersfield lived dangerously the whole time, but there was no doubt that this day belonged to them.
It was also true that both goals required unfortunate deflections from Fulham players, but Town’s defense on the other hand, particularly by Tom Lees, meant they deserved that luck.
Fulham started with a swagger expecting them to score quickly. The Cordova-Reid volley over, a ball in front of Fabio Carvalho just missed the sliding Aleksandar Mitrovic and there were also other hairy moments.
However, there had been warning signs on the other side, with a Ward tap-in being rightly ruled out as Sorba Thomas had erred offside.
And when Harry Toffolo’s ball bounced off Fulham captain Tom Cairney from the left in the 31st minute, Ward reacted quickly to fire a shot through goalkeeper Marek Rodak.
Twelve minutes later Rodak was knocked out again, this time from the penalty spot by Holmes. Fulham claimed the goalkeeper’s turning over of Thomas was nothing more than a routine clash, but again a cross was initially diverted to Fulham’s goal, this time by Nathaniel Chalobah.
Carvalho forced Town keeper Lee Nicholls into a diving save early in the second half, but there was even more frustration among the home fans, who saw Neco Willams’ cross avoid both Mitrovic and sub Neeskens Kebano in front of goal.
Silva had previously been booked for too much commentary on an incident in the Town box where Kebano fell under Matty Pearson’s challenge.
City skipper Jonathan Hogg already booked appeared to elbow Mitrovic to the face in the Huddersfield penalty area shortly afterwards, but again no action was taken.
Nicholls made a fine save to stop Mitrovic’s header, but got no chance after 83 minutes from De Cordova-Reid, who controlled Williams’ ball in the penalty area and hit it high into the net.
That led to a furious Fulham finish, with keeper Rodak facing a barrage of set pieces, but Town survived a series of hairy moments to hold out.
