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Monday 26 September 2011

Sqaundered oppotunites


Well, well, well, the last tie Terrier Blog came to you, we’d just dispatched of Sheffield United in emphatic style, and surely the good times would continue to roll, right? But in a fashion befitting of Huddersfield Town, we conspired to turn two winning positions into draws. But at least we’re unbeaten, and we’re still in touch, just, with the top of the table.

Anyway onto the game down in Milton Keynes, a game I eagerly anticipated, and because of this, I decided to take my Dad (a spurs fan), along to try and convert him to the religion of HTAFC. But a flowing game, and an advert for league 1 football, it certainly was not. There seemed to be inevitability about the game from the moment Danny Wards thunderous volley crashed off the crossbar and evaded Novak. The first half was possibly the most dominant I have seen us in a long time, however a blunt attack spearheaded by Novak and Lee failed to capitalize on our superiority. The second half came, and we seemed to play with an air of complacency, which was confirmed when the vibrantly ginger Dean Lewington hit home from a corner. Although we huffed and puffed from then on, but for me, we rarely looked like scoring.  However with four minutes remaining, MK Dons seemed to hand us the 3 points on a plate, when Mackenzie took a disliking to Alan Lee, a cardinal sin! Now I must make special mention of what I believe was some excellent refereeing here, all too often we have seen incidents like this go unpunished. Cast your minds back to St James Park in August, when referee Peter Walton inexplicably failed to give Arsenal a penalty when Joey Barton dragged Gervinho up by his head. Anyway, saviour this moment because it’s highly unlikely I’ll be bigging up anymore officials this season.
The penalty was missed, and we failed to get the three points, however 4 points from 2 very difficult fixtures is an admirable return, and in honesty we would have probably settled for that before the games, a thought echoed by Lee Clark. However, it did irk somewhat that we drew a match, which I think we dominated. Oh well, 4 points gained and a fairly routine home game around the corner, things were looking very rosy indeed.
So the game against the O’s seemed to be fairly routine, and things were indeed looking rosy. Jack Hunt scored a screamer, and even the big man Alan Lee got him on the scoresheet, things couldn’t get much sweeter! But, then it happened, boom boom saw red, both literally and metaphorically, and we somehow managed to let a two goal lead against Orient slip for the second time this year. A crushing and horrible feeling descended on every Town fan when Ben Chorley (BEN F*CKING CHORLEY) steered in an equaliser. In my personal opinion, the sending off represents a great deal of indiscipline from Jamie Mccombe, and is even more disappointing considering what happened and Stadium:MK a week prior. Something Lee Clark seems to agree with,
“When you have indiscipline in your group that’s what happens. He has killed us. He will be fined the maximum and I think 100 per cent he will struggle to get his place back in the team now,”
However I think it’s slightly harsh  to lay all the blame at his door for our loss of points, as any decent team with 10 men, a 2 goal advantage and ten minutes remaining, should be able to hold on against the basement boys. But that seems to be the way of our club over recent times. With every dropped point the promotion dream seems to become just that, a dream, but hope springs eternal.

Thursday 15 September 2011

Sean Bean, Paul Heaton, Danny Wilson, your boys took one hell of a beating!

 An ever-growing unbeaten run and an away trip to our table-topping rivals Sheffield United filled me with trepidation. Could this be the Manchester United to our Arsenal? Could the unbeaten run come crashing down around our ears? These questions were answered emphatically by Lee Novak, Oscar Gobern and co. “£28, you’re having a laugh!”, was the sound frequently echoing around Brammall Lane, in between bouts of “United” and “SHIT!”. But I bet all the Town fans that forked out for that trip will consider it 28 British pounds spent very wisely indeed.
Now onto the match itself, as I sat down in my living room and plugged in ‘Town player’, I strangely felt no nerves at all, whether this was down to the 5 pints I had previously consumed, or the strength of our team, we will never know! However as the game went on, and Oggy’s voice pitched and wavered, we grew into the game, and even began to dominate. The goals came thick and fast, first a brace from Novak and then a powerful header from newbie Oscar Gobern. At any other club, we would think that’s it, done and dusted, the game is over. However as we all know, with Huddersfield Town, things are never straight forward, so I sat there nervously for another half, refusing to celebrate three points until the very end of the match. But there were no mess-ups from Town this time, no lapses in concentration, just solid defending and cut-throat attacking, the only thing that was missing was a goal for big Alan!
Although this result was monumental and fantastic, I don’t think we can celebrate it vigorously until we’ve gone down to Milton Keynes and returned unscathed. However important this victory may have been, it will lose significance if we go down to Stadium:MK (eurgh) and lose. This game however, fills me with more confidence than you might think, as I believe if we play 4-5-1, we have the perfect formation to stop MK Dons and beat them. If we do as we did last year, shut them out and hit them on the break, then I think we’ll be on to something, hopefully....
Now, in all the furore of the Sheffield United game, it can nearly be forgotten that we played Tranmere Rovers at the weekend. Who, lest we not forget are always a very stubborn opponent, especially on our own patch. We rode our luck at times, especially with the penalty claim, but we came through with two fantastic strikes from Roberts and Arfield, showing the quality of our squad. If we cast our minds back to last year, then we can remember how many times we had no game-changers on the bench, fast-forward a year though, and the strength of our squad means that, if things aren’t going particularly well, we can always bring on fresh-faces and change a game.
The 2-0 victory as oppose to the feared 0-0 greatly pleased me last weekend, and is further proof of something I have been rambling on about for quite some time. That we have finally learnt to overcome stubborn teams, who come to the Galpharm with one sole aim, to frustrate us. As my twitter followers (of which there are so many) will have seen me say, we should be beating any team with Lucas Akins in it! And we did, which was then augmented by the result on Tuesday night, hopefully we can make it a very successful 7 days, by dispatching Franchise FC down at their place on Saturday.
Anyway that’s all for this week, hope you all enjoy the trip on Saturday, I’ll see you down there!

Wednesday 7 September 2011

Bad defending, but the run continues....

Well after a lack of internet and a stay in the emerald Isle we’re back with this week’s ‘Terrier blog’. A lot has happened since the last blog, the first of which was the Northampton game in the JPT.
One can imagine how foolish I must have felt with 15 minutes or so remaining on the clock and Northampton getting closer and closer to a goal. However all was saved by the hero of the day Lee Novak, whom fired in after fantastic work from Woods and Roberts. So we won the game and my blushes were spared. However it was not an easy game and it was certainly not easy watching. I, as I suspect along with many other Town fans was slightly perturbed at the amount of times that a league 2 side seemed to get at us, and cause us problems.
But as is said seemingly over and over again by ‘qualified’ pundits across the country, ‘a wins a win’, and that’s exactly what we got.
Now onto the game against Oldham, which genuinely worried me on Friday, and worried me even more when Shefki Kuqi dived into the air and plummeted like a stunned Rhino? Thankfully, the comeback was swift and effective, Anthony Kay connecting with a corner (oh the memories) and steering the ball into the Latics goal. ‘Build on this’ I thought, and so it seemed we would as the Oldham goal came under serious pressure from Town. Unfortunately it was a case of ‘same old story’ for Town this season, they were unable to capitalize on their dominance of a game, and were let down AGAIN by defensive frailties. A thought echoed by stand-in captain Anthony Kay.
"The defending wasn't good enough for the first goal and we are all aware of that - we need to go onto the training ground and improve on certain areas."
This would seem glaringly obvious to all involved with Town, and we must hope that the players and staff act it. Now I know we haven’t just travelled to our nearest rivals and shipped 8 goals, but the constant bemoaning of the defending from players and staff reminds me somewhat of the Gunners. Short of bringing in a 6 foot 6 German international, I do not see how we can immediately rectify our defensive problems. However I have more confidence in Lee Clark to sort out our defence than I do in Arsene Wenger to sort out the gunners problems.
In contrast to some fans though, I am not worried about our team, and I think that we will be successful this season. Why? I hear you call in shock and disbelief. Because Mr Clark seems to have a knack of ‘gelling’ players slowly, and I think that once this team has ‘gelled’, then we will go on a similar, if not better run than last season... Fingers crossed!

Anyway the weekend brings the visit of surprise outfit Tranmere Rovers, which will undoubtedly be a difficult game, as I can envisage them coming to park the bus, or even some sort of plane. But if we can break them down, and I think we will, then I suspect we will take all 3 points, and things will once again be rosy in West Yorkshire. Until next week, take care and enjoy the Tranmere game.