Coventry City: Andre Breitenreiter makes debatable Ellis Simms claim after Huddersfield Town brace | OneFootball

Huddersfield Town head coach Andre Breitenreiter believes his side made it "too easy" for Coventry City striker Ellis Simms in the Sky Blues' win on Good Friday.

Coventry picked up their third consecutive league victory with a 3-1 win over relegation-threatened Huddersfield at the John Smith's Stadium to continue their play-off push.

In-form Simms gave the Sky Blues the lead in the 16th minute, and he doubled their advantage just six minutes later.

The Terriers improved in the second half, and Jack Rudoni hit the bar before Rhys Healey pulled one back in the 79th minute when he capitalised on a mistake from goalkeeper Brad Collins.

Huddersfield pushed for an equaliser, and they came close when Pat Jones was denied by Collins, but the visitors sealed all three points in the fourth minute of stoppage time through Haji Wright.

Coventry move up to seventh in the Championship table, four points behind sixth-placed Norwich City with a game in hand, and they are back in action when they host Cardiff City at the CBS Arena on Easter Monday.

Andre Breitenreiter criticises Huddersfield Town defending against Coventry City

Simms' double against Huddersfield means that he has now scored 13 goals in 18 games since the turn of the year, and Terriers boss Breitenreiter was frustrated with the way his side gifted the 23-year-old his goals.

"We had a good start and the first big chance from Josh Koroma on a one-on-one situation (with the goalkeeper) and we should’ve taken the lead then," Breitenreiter said, quoted via Coventry Live.

"They got 1-0 from nothing and when you are at the bottom of the table you need to play with confidence. We lost too many individual duels in the first half - we spoke about this at half-time because you cannot win when you lose too many duels.

"We made too many errors. To be honest we trained over the last 12 days with a box defence but the first and the third goals were easy (for Coventry) with a one on one situation which we have to defend better. Our shots in their area were all blocked; they defended with their lives and we tried to do the same but we didn’t block and it was too easy.

"And maybe the quality of a player like Simms, to score two easy goals and that was probably the difference today. We had a lot of chances in the same situation but they scored and we didn’t. "Normally when you are 2-0 down against a strong opponent like Coventry you never have the chance to come back, but I thought we were more positive about the second half and knew that one goal can change many things, and it was really good to see the morale was there in the team and they played with more bravery offensively in the second half when we hit the crossbar.

"And then we scored and the substitutes did a great job and we had the supporters behind us and yeah, you also need a little bit of luck. Set-pieces were poor today but we created the chances to score. We tried everything to get the draw but they got a third - but that’s football."

Coventry City show promotion credentials in Huddersfield Town victory

It could have been a potentially tricky afternoon for Coventry against a Huddersfield side fighting for their lives at the bottom of the table, but the Sky Blues came away with a crucial three points.

Mark Robins' side have an FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United at Wembley next month, but they proved that they remain fully focused on securing a play-off place with an impressive performance in West Yorkshire.

Simms endured a tough start to life at the club after his big money move from Everton in the summer, but he has now scored 16 goals this season, and his confidence was clear to see as he netted an excellent brace.

Coventry had to withstand Huddersfield pressure in the second half, but they showed their resilience to keep out the Terriers before adding a third, and Robins will no doubt be delighted to see Wright get on the scoresheet once again.

The Sky Blues are building momentum at the perfect time, and with both Simms and Wright in outstanding form, they will be hopeful of another top six finish this season.