Huddersfield Town (0) 0
Port Vale (1) 1
McCarthy 54.
Saturday 26 October 1996
Attendance 11,017
Reported by Robin Stewart (this page)
Huddersfield: Francis, Jenkins, Cowan, Bullock (Dalton 46), Sinnott, Gray, Makel, Burnett, Edwards, Payton (Lawson 46), Williams (Crosby 63).
Booked: Lawson.
Port Vale: Musselwhite, Hill, Tankard, Walker, Griffiths, Glover, McCarthy, Porter, Talbot, Naylor (Foyle 80), Guppy.
Subs Not Used: Holwyn, Mills.
Booked: Talbot, Guppy.
Ref: G B Frankland (Middlesbrough).
Another Saturday, another abject defeat at the hands of Port Vale, who've now won 3 times at the McAlpine in the past 14 months. Quite why the potteries side hold such a jinx over Town is a mystery - they were nothing like the fluent attacking force of their 2-0 win a year ago. Instead, their football was so bad that it would've shamed a Sunday League side. Nevertheless, they were still far too good for a dire Town outfit, which is hardly very encouraging, to put it mildly.
Another Saturday, another new fangled tactical system from the deeper recesses of Brian Horton's brain. This time, the intention was to play 4-5-1, a system so obscure that it has never even been mentioned on the Town list. Payton was supposed to play the role of the hard-working lone striker, foraging for posession, with Darren Bullock, of all people, playing in the hole behind him. Width was supposedly supplied to the central triangle of Bully, Makel and Burnett by Edwards on the left, and the abysmal Williams on the right. So that only meant that Bullock, Edwards & Williams were totally out of position, trying to link up with the terminally lazy Payton up front. Payton put in a performance of statue-esque torpor - Marcus Stewart would no doubt have been much more lively & mobile. No, I'm not referring to our 1.2 million signing from Bristol, but my 18 day old, incubator ridden son. Even he's more mobile than Andy Payton! Normally, the industry of Darren Bullock could have come to the rescue. However, allegedly, Mr Bullock was lying in a pool of piss, dribbling down his chin outside Ethos until shortly before kick-off - allegedly, according to someone I was sitting by. Even if there's no truth in it, he looked as though he'd recently guzzled several crates of Diamond White... As for Williams, well... uncommitted, lazy, soft, slow.... Arrghh!
As you may be beginning to detect, I didn't much enjoy the match. Bright spots were the performance of Cowan, who effectively snuffed out the treat of McCarthy, forcing him to swap wings at the start of the second half. Whereupon he immediately scored, following some pin-ball following a Port Vale corner. Town reverted to 4-4-2 in the second half, & played fractionally better. They still played pretty badly, though. We should've sneaked a lucky draw when a Crosby cross looked set to be converted by the onrushing Burnett. Paul Dalton stuck his foot in at the wrong moment, and sent the ball out for a goal kick. Burnett & Makel played quite well, as did Sinnott, although Makel picked up quite a nasty injury in the second half. He soldiered on, as Town had no subs left, and hobbled slowly around the pitch to the usual cries of 'lazy bastard' from the ever generous crowd.
Sorry if all you folks around the world find this report a bit glum. Look on the bright side. At least you didn't waste 2 hours watching this crap...
And can we just stick to 4-4-2 in the future, Brian??