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Tuesday 30 August 2011

4-5-1, Alan Lee & Cobblers



Well, well, well... Who would have expected that? A 3-0 home win over Wycombe marking a second consecutive Saturday home win, and a brace from the big man himself, Alan, Alan Lee! I, like many of you I was ecstatic when the ball looped in over the Wycombe keeper, and Alan Lee wheeled away in jubilation. What a moment that was for the Town number 19, who then went on to score a second. Had he followed up with a third he would have equalled his goals tally for the whole of last season! The fans were truly fantastic as well throughout the match, and there is no other chant I want to hear reverberating around the Galpharm, more than ‘Alan, Alan Lee’. However I did find it slightly perplexing to hear a small group of fans singing ‘Alan Lee for England’, at the Republic of Ireland international... Here’s what the big man had to say about the fans himself...
“I was bursting with pride when I heard them singing my name and I would like to thank them all for that.”
This could be clearly seen in his post-match celebrations; however the match was, for me about much more than just Alan Lee. I feel as though it marked a new moment for us, an epiphany and perhaps a crucial moment for the rest of the season. We came up against a side playing a very rigid 4-51, with little to no ambition, and yet we won, and scored three goals! This for me was a monumental achievement, as we have so often struggled in the past to break these sorts of teams down. Praise must be given also to Lee Clark, for remaining solid in his beliefs, and making the game-winning substitutions.
The match on the whole was extremely positive, and will no doubt be a day that will live long in the memory of the future England international Alan Lee...oh wait! However I do have one gripe and that is to do with the people that were sat around me. Upon the start of the second-half, I was accosted by a fellow bald gentleman, who sought to bring luck to the team by kissing my head, rather seductively I might add! I was treated to this ritual after every goal, and was left near the end praying we wouldn’t score a fourth! Also, I was unfortunate enough to be sat near another gentleman who seemed to think he was a tactical genius, and revelled in shouting “Blue ball”, and “focus” at Town players in an absurdly high-pitched voice. Oh well, the ups and downs of following Huddersfield Town I suppose! In all seriousness though, the fans in the South stand were a great credit to the club and the result was fantastic.
Now onto tonight’s game against the Cobblers... This is a game I would fully expect us to win, and I expect we will do just that. However I feel that we cannot underestimate Northampton, as we have seen their cup pedigree in recent seasons. This is a perfect opportunity for us to go one better and get to Wembley, a view shared by Huddersfield manager Lee Clark.
“We’ll be fielding a team tomorrow that I believe can win us the tie and go on and get to Wembley and be successful.”
But lest we forget, the last time we heard a similarly bold claim by the manager, it was coming from the lardy mouth of Stan Turnip, and we then went on to lose to Darlington... However I don’t think this will be the case tonight. I think we’ll go with a changed team from the weekend, probably in a 4-51 ish formation, but still a strong-enough team to see of Northampton.
Anyway that’s it from this week’s TerrierBlog, as I’m about to set off to Sixfields now, in the hope of erasing the terrible memory of a late Adebayo Akinfewa equaliser some time ago. Until then, goodbye!

Wednesday 24 August 2011

Welcome to the Terrier blog!!

Hello and welcome all to the inaugaral 'Terrier blog', which will hopefully be the first of many! Through this blog I'll try to sum up the weeks events, in one bitesize and humorous chunk!
The first matter that I feel needs discussing, is the Colchester game that has just gone, now before I start echoing the thoughts of many and bemoaning the defending, I'll just remind you all that we did indeed win the match. Hopefully this match can prove to be the catalyst for our season, and perhaps see us take off on a winning run as oppose to an unbeaten run. However, I think the chances of a 29 match winning run are about as likely as Peter Clarke and Jamie McCombe becoming olympic sprinters! The pleasing aspect, for me from Saturday was the way that we responded in the second-half, this gave me hope for the next few games.
So a 3-2 victory, a shocking miss from the once FA Cup semi-finalist Kayode Odejayi and a brace from Jordan Rhodes, a pretty routine day all round, well done Town.

Now to the matter of last nights match against European giants Cardiff City. I unfortunately decided to opt out of this game, as I'm not enthralled with the idea of watching Town in Europe. What a humongous mistake I thought when I heard Oggy praising the comeback which saw Town come from 2 goals down to lead the sheepsh*ggers 3-2. However, the same old frailties that have plagued this club throughout the years soon returned to rear their ugly heads. Somehow we managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. A 5-3 reversal, almost suicidal defending and an abysmal miss from my favourite joker, Alan Lee, a pretty routine day all round, bloody hell Town!


“Obviously we have got to defend a lot better at times. If you score three away from home you should really be winning the game.

“Having said that, I thought we showed we could match a team like Cardiff, and it is at big grounds and in front of passionate fans that our players should be aiming to play every week.”


Here we have a snippet of the views disembowed by Lee Clark after last nights reversal, the striking thing here is the juxtoposition of his comments. It is obvious that we cannot defend very well at the moment, I as many of you am at a loss to explain this, the only obvious causes it would seem;would be that the whole defense is on LSD, or have been cloned and swapped for pub players .(see the curious case of Alan Lee) . Then in the second half of the quote, Lee goes on to explain that we can compete with teams like Cardiff, which in a funny kind of way gives me more hope for the season.
If we fix our defense, then I honestly feel that we will have a very succesful season, however if we do not, I fear more inconsistency and an upswing in heart-attacks at the Galpharm over the coming months.

Thoughts for last nights game; well done Town good effort, apart from the defense, who deserved to be bludgeoned to death by wild dwarves for their crimes against HTFC, too harsh?

Oh well, another 'oh so nearly' moment for the Terriers, but you know what they say, onwards and upwards....towards Wycombe.

Ands that's that until next week, try and enjoy the Wycombe game.