HUDDERSFIELD Town boss Simon Grayson looked ahead to Saturday’s big derby showdown with Sheffield Wednesday and pledged: “We will be better.”

Town’s boss looked on in frustration as his 15th-placed side conceded a stoppage-time leveller to lose out on what would have been a first win in eight Championship games at home to Blackpool.

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Anthony Gerrard’s 66th-minute goal, his first for the club, came hugely against the run of play yesterday, but looked set to seal all three points until substitute Nathan Delfouneso’s strike in the fourth minute of time added on.

Grayson admitted Town badly need to end their long wait for a win in their lunchtime meeting with Wednesday, who are fourth-bottom but have won their last two, defeating Bolton 1-0 in Lancashire yesterday.

“We have to play far better than in the first half – and I guarantee we will,” insisted former Blackpool boss Grayson.

“It’s a blow to concede an equaliser so late, but if you look at the whole game, you can’t be disappointed with a point, because we could have been dead and buried within the first 25 minutes.

“If we’d won, it would have been papering over the cracks, because we weren’t good enough in the first half.

“We were nowhere near the levels of energy, desire and commitment needed, and the players know it.

“We looked very ordinary, and the only saving grace at half-time was that it was still 0-0 and we were still in the game.

“We changed the shape of team and did a little bit better in the second half, when we kept the ball alive better and got the goal.

“We needed to dig in and see the game out, but we couldn’t even do that. You have to be honest and say a draw was no less than Blackpool deserved over the course of the game.”

Huddersfield Town 1 - 1 Blackpool: Examiner match report and galleries: Click here to open match report in new window

Grayson is hopeful left-back Calum Woods, who suffered a groin injury, and winger Danny Ward, who would have been on the bench but tweaked a knee during the warm-up, will be available against Wednesday.

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Murray Wallace came off the bench to replace Woods yesterday, when Joel Lynch was serving a one-match ban.

It was the 19-year-old’s debut and Grayson said: “I thought he did a good job against a very good player in Tom Ince.”

Town will today learn the outcome of their appeal against Gerrard’s red card at Crystal Palace last Saturday.

“It was a good tackle, and if this one’s not rescinded, we might as well never appeal again,” said Grayson.