Mick McCarthy could not celebrate his 1000th game as a manager with the victory that would have taken Cardiff City back up into the Championship play-off spots.
But he would have been happy to settle for a point after Huddersfield's Yaya Sanogo shot wide from the penalty spot with the game's biggest chance.
As it is, his unbeaten start with Cardiff now stretches to 11 games and they sit one point behind sixth-placed Bournemouth.
McCarthy's journey started as player-manager at Millwall in March 1992 and of course led him to the World Cup with the Republic of Ireland in 2002 as the pinnacle.