Lee Nicholls urges Huddersfield Town action after Charlton Athletic hammering | OneFootball

The Terriers were beaten 4-0 by the Addicks on Saturday, and head into their clash with the Imps on the back foot.

Goalkeeper Lee Nicholls has urged his Huddersfield Town team to react to their disappointing 4-0 defeat to Charlton Athletic when they return to League One duty against Lincoln City on Tuesday evening.

The Terriers were well beaten by the Addicks at The Valley on Saturday, with Matty Godden's goal inside the first minute handing the hosts the advantage from the off. A Tyreece Campbell brace extended Nathan Jones' side's lead further, before Nicholls inadvertently turned the ball into his own net after Greg Docherty struck a fierce effort off the crossbar.

The result saw the West Yorkshire outfit drop out of the top six, while their opponents extended their gap over them to eight points.

Huddersfield welcome Lincoln to the John Smith's Stadium on Tuesday as they hope to leapfrog Reading back into sixth place, but they know that a defeat could see them drop down to ninth if both Bolton Wanderers and Leyton Orient taste victory.

Nicholls fires message to Huddersfield teammates after Charlton defeat

The Terriers have lost three of their last four League One matches, and their chances of returning to the Championship have taken a significant hit in the last few weeks.

Their inconsistency cost Michael Duff his job earlier in March, and Jon Worthington has the incredibly tough task of taking the club to the play-offs on an interim basis.

If Huddersfield are to close the gap to their rivals once again, then they have to start winning games more frequently, and speaking after their defeat to Charlton, Nicholls has urged his team to show a reaction against Lincoln.

The 32-year-old told BBC Radio Leeds: "We never got out the blocks quick enough, and probably gave them a goal too early, and made a few mistakes which cost us. We were always on the back foot from that point. It’s disappointing obviously, but we’ve got a game on Tuesday night to put it right, and that’s what we need to do.

"From the kick-off, I think we were okay, and then we just make a sloppy mistake and give the ball away, they play down the line, great ball and header, it’s a good goal, sometimes you need to hold your hands up."

Nicholls continued: "Mistakes happen in football games, it’s just the reaction that I’m disappointed with. We should’ve dug in for 15 to 20 minutes, and try to just keep it to 1-0 and then go from there, but unfortunately we didn’t, they scored another good goal.

"Second half we came out and tried to make things happen, but credit to Charlton today, I thought they were good. In my opinion they fought a lot harder than us today, and credit to them, but we need to put things right for Tuesday night, and sort of turn things around again.

"We’ve played against Nathan Jones numerous times in my career, and he’s always got the same type of team. Personally, I knew what type of game it was going to be, and you’ve got to be prepared for that. We’ll review it tomorrow [Sunday] and Monday, and see what we can put right, and make sure it doesn’t happen again."

Huddersfield's defeat to Charlton must be a wake-up call

The Terriers are struggling at the moment, and their defeat to Charlton was a true indication of just how tough they are finding it in League One.

Nevertheless, their work earlier on in the season does mean that they still have more than a good enough chance of finishing in the play-off places, and they must react to the 4-0 loss immediately.

Lincoln are another side who have found consistency hard to come by, and Huddersfield have to make the most of home advantage on Tuesday and give their supporters hope to cling on to, as that has been hard to come by recently.

With eight games to go, time is running out for Worthington's team to show that they have enough quality to finish in the top six and three points against the Imps will only help.