Huddersfield Town (0) 3
Richardson 46, Stewart 80, Dalton 90.
Stoke City (0) 1
Griffin 79.
Saturday 1 November 1997
Attendance 10,916
Reported by Robin Stewart (this page)
Reported by Darren Reynolds (via link)
Reported by Nigel Taylor (via link)
Reported by Michael Shaw (via link)
Huddersfield: Bartram, Jenkins, Edmondson, Dyson, Morrison, Gray, Dalton, Horne, Stewart, Richardson, Edwards (Lawson 45).
Subs Not Used: Dyer, Burnett.
Booked: Richardson.
Stoke: Muggleton, Pickering, Griffin, Sigurdsson, Tweed, Keen, Forsyth, Wallace (Andrede 73), Thorne (McMahon 73), Stewart, Kavanagh.
Subs Not Used: McNally.
Booked: Keen.
Ref: K M Lynch (Knaresborough).
At the fifteenth time of asking, Town finally managed to record a league win
with a well-earned victory over Stoke. All the scoring came in the second
half, with a 25 yard Richardson strike cancelled out by a Griffin blast,
before Stewart immediately extended the lead, and Dalton put the icing on
the cake with a bizarre goal on the final whistle. With visits to fellow
relegation strugglers Tranmere and Man City in the next week, Jacko must now
be able to see a chink of light for Town, who move within 2 points of 23rd
place with this win (!).
Town, as has always been the case this season, started very well, with
Edmonson playing surprisingly well as a left wing-back. As per usual,
though, the pressure did not convert into goals, although Town went quite
close. Stoke clearly fancied their chances this afternoon, and initially
came to play football with a certainty that bordered on arrogance. Their
back four were happy to try deft little touches when under pressure, and
this twice nearly cost them in the first half. Paul Dalton was the first
beneficiary of this generosity, bringing an excellent reflex save from
Muggleton after intercepting and cutting in from the right. Stewart went
even closer, when intercepting a weak back-header and lobbing the keeper,
only for his effort to be cleared off the line by Pickering. Both Stewart
and Dalton again roamed with menace, Richardson showed a good eye for doing
the less than obvious, and Edmonson repeately joined attacks with some
intelligence. Rob Edwards was pretty hopeless, though. Stoke gradually began
to get a bit more into the game, with their midfield quartet always looking
to break forward. Up front, however, they were handicapped by the presence
of veteran striker Paul Stewart, who played rather like Ronnie Jepson,
except with less running and more attempts to con the referee. As half time
approached, Stoke had their best spell of the match, with 2 long range
efforts for Kavanagh going close, and a very quickly taken free
kick [just like against QPR last season! - Ed]hitting the
outside of the post (and infuriating Andy Morrison in the process).
Jacko withdrew Edwards at half time, replacing him with the more physical
strenth of Lawson. The substitution paid immediate dividends, as Town scored
directly from the kick-off, without a Stoke player getting a touch on the
ball. Attacking down the left, the ball reached Lawson on the edge of the
box, and his layback was met by Richardson who scored low to the keepers'
right from 25 yards. Town then seemed to set themselves to defend for the
next 44 minutes, while Stoke dropped their one touch football and settled
for belting the ball upfield ... where it invariably landed on Morrison's
head. With Stoke pouring players forward, Town had plenty of chances to
counter-attack, and the game became increasingly frantic and desperate, with
midfield largely bypassed by both sides. Barry Horne certainly looked a
spectator for much of the second half, and Richardson also became less of a
presence following another yellow card (mistimed tackle). As Town were
pushed deeper and deeper, it became obvious that Stoke would eventually get
lucky, and their goal did contain more than an element of fortune. Jon Dyson
and Paul Stewart went up for a high ball in the box, which Stewart won by
basically shoving Dyson over. The ball bounced nicely for Griffin, who
blasted the ball over Bartram and into the top of the net with a swing from
an acute angle that would normally find the pie stall. Prolonged Stoke
celebrations followed, but amazingly, rather than collapsing into a
shambles, Town regained the lead directly from the kick-off - again! A foul
on Jenkins from the kick off led to a quickly taken free-kick driven low
accross the box where Stewart (Marcus, not the crap one playing for Stoke)
arrived before the keeper and turned the ball inside the left hand post.
Pandemonium - Jacko on the pitch, Stewart buried under a heap of team-mates,
and the Stoke keeper making his way out of goal to receive the ball from the
kick-off - until he was swiftly sent back by his team mates. The impetus was
now with Town, and we looked like scoring another, as the minutes slowly
dribbled away. Then, with one minute remaining, Stoke won a corner.
Now there are two things to remember about Stoke - their goalies are always
awful (remember Mark Prudhoe) and their supporters are mainly 15 year old
lads who are somewhat lower on the evolutionary ladder than the rest of
humanity. The latter no doubt earned the police some much needed overtime
pay, and staged a pathetic scrap with the coppers after Town took the lead
for the first time. Plenty seemed to be intent on a trip to see the
legendary Huddersfield Magistrates after the match, too. Anyway, getting
back to the corner, Stoke custodian Carl Muggleton decided the time was
right for him to stake his claim to Paul Stewart's place, and took up
position on Town's near post. Sadly for him, Forsyth's outswinging corner
went to Marcus on the edge of the Town box, and he released Paul Dalton down
the right with a defender close behind, and Muggleton some 50 yards further
back. Dalton was just over half way when the defender got into tackling
distance (rugby tackling, that is), and Dolly quickly got his (60 yard?)
[more like 40 - Ed] shot into the unguarded net. Fantastic, the
funniest thing I've seen since, erm, Mark Prudhoe visited the McAlpine.
So, at long long last, after 6 and a bit months, we've won a league match!
And I think it's the first time we've scored 3 for 13 months!
Player Ratings
Bartram - No problems today, no chance with the goal, but otherwise sound. His distribution and ability under crosses are clearly better than Francis - not so sure about his shot stopping, though.
Jenkins - Not the most natural wing back in the world, but I thought he played OK today. Played an important role in surpressing Kevin Keen when Stoke were threatening to take control in the second half.
Edmonson - Played a blinder - defended well when required, and gave Town a new option with intelligent forward movement.
Dyson - Again pretty good - one blinding tackle in the second half.
Morrison - An awesome display of aerial power, and some uncompromising tackling. An immense performance from a fat b*stard (I'll get the insults in before he joins the mailing list!)
Gray - The least notable of the defensive trio, can't remember much about him today.
Dalton - Sheer class, elusive running, hard work (!) and a goal to treasure.
Horne - Not his day. Didn't seem to be able to turn quickly enough in his wheelchair to take advantage of attacking opportunities, and was overrun defensively in the second half.
Stewart - As he is a confidence player who tends to score goals in bursts, his well taken chance should be good news for Town ... Worked his proverbials off again, and not scared to be selfish in front of goal.
Richardson - Very good showing, especially in the first half, where his vision around the Stoke box was a class apart. Sweetly struck goal, too.
Edwards - Diabolical, although to be fair, he's always been hopeless at Town. He used to play badly and score every match, but now his scoring touch has gone, he's, ahem, a candidate for the transfer list. Replaced by ...
Lawson - Set the first goal up nicely, but otherwise won't have made Jacko think again about buying a striker.
One last point:
YEAAAHHHH!