Chris Powell says he and his Huddersfield Town players will carry on battling to bridge the Championship’s financial gulf.

After a 2-1 home defeat by ambitious Derby County, who spent £10m on the last day of the transfer window, Powell is now preparing for a trip to Burnley, relegated from the Premier League last season and in receipt of a £64m parachute payment spread over four years.

While Saturday’s hosts are third after a 1-0 derby win at Blackburn Rovers and Derby fifth, Town are 15th following their fifth defeat of the league campaign.

Powell, who has a fresh injury worry in Sean Scannell (hamstring) described the current state of his squad as “threadbare”.

Jonathan Hogg again missed out with a thigh injury, while fellow midfielder Kyle Dempsey is still recovering from a bout of illness.

And experienced striker James Vaughan won’t be back from suspension until after the Burnley trip (Town go to Reading on Tuesday, November 3).

“We are quite threadbare, and I ended up asking a young lad (19-year-old striker Flo Bojaj) to come on and make an impression on a big stage,” said Powell.

“Then you look at Derby and they have almost an embarrassment of riches.

“They brought in Jacob Butterfield (from Town) and Bradley Johnson last month and already had one of the best strikers in the league in Chris Martin. Then they bring Darren Bent off the bench!”

Martin’s 15th-minute opener was cancelled out by Harry Bunn (31st minute).

But Town couldn’t conjure a response to George Thorne’s sizzling 48th-minue strike in front of a season’s-best tickets-issued gate of 15,371 ((3,803 from Derby).

“We responded well to the first goal. The players picked themselves up and got back into the game,” added Powell.

“But we made a mistake at the start of the second half, because we should have cleared our lines.

“We got punished by a good technician in George Thorne.

“We were chasing it then, and we didn’t have enough in regard to trying to break them down.

“We matched them with effort, but they have more quality and class.

“I’m not moaning, because this is where we are as a club.

“We will try to coach as much quality as we can into the players we have.

“And we will continue to battle and give our all in every game.”

Huddersfield Town v Derby County: Town's Mustapha Carayol in action.
Huddersfield Town v Derby County: Town's Mustapha Carayol in action.