Nahki Wells and his Huddersfield Town team-mates have been picking up the pieces this week from a bruising defeat by Leeds, their West Yorkshire rivals, in dark and gloomy conditions symbolising the side’s fortunes of late.

Despite taking the lead through a Danny Ward goal midway through the first half, the visitors failed to “kill the game off” in a hostile Elland Road atmosphere last Saturday, with Wells among the chief culprits squandering several chances.

“In a very important game the chances came and I did not take them,” Wells said. “But I understand that as a striker you have days when you cannot hit a barn door and the chances are coming left, right and centre.

“The most important thing is that the chances are coming and I’m going to keep working hard and keep my head down because I know my strength, and my strength is putting the ball in the back of the net.

“I know as time goes I will continue to grow as a player and the chances will continue to come and hopefully I can take them.”

Huddersfield, who are 14th in the Sky Bet Championship table, 13 points adrift of the final promotion play-off spot, find themselves amid a crippling four-game losing streak and a 5-1 defeat to Leeds would not have done their confidence any good.

“Results haven’t gone our way lately and that is down to not killing games off,” Wells added. “It doesn’t help that we have had some important players out and have had to make a lot of changes, but that is no excuse.”

Rather than lament what might have been, Wells and his team-mates have put the humbling result behind them and are looking ahead to Saturday’s home league encounter against Wigan Athletic at John Smith’s Stadium.

“We have been unlucky lately,” Wells said. “But we cannot dwell on it too much because the game is gone and we have another match on Saturday where we can put it right.”

Wells is bidding for a place in Mark Robins’s squad for the match along with Huddersfield’s leading goalscorer, James Vaughan, who is among a handful of players returning from injury.

If given picked, Wells, who joined Huddersfield from League One side Bradford City for £1.3?million last month, intends to approach the match as he would any other.

“I have the same amount of determination as in any match and as a striker you want to score so you put pressure on yourself to score every game,” said Wells, who scored the match-winner in a win against Millwall on his Huddersfield debut.

“The good thing is I average a goal every other game and I want to improve on that.”