Huddersfield Town 3
Tranmere Rovers 0
Reported by Martin Sykes
Yet again, Aldridge sends out a team bent on niggling, fouling and
oafishness.
Town respond with a display of genuinely heartening guts and class.
For the first 5 minutes, the posh Scousers play football and pin Town
back with long throws, corners and pressing play which was reasonably
admirable.
Town, however, break out and Tranmere's true colours start to show with
some atrocious pulling back, fouls and plenty of "afters".
With the sun shining in to their faces, Tranmere just could not handle
Allison and, from a corner, our battling centre forward back headed us
in to the lead. Wayne spent the next 35 minutes being constantly shoved
and jumped upon with yet another bloody useless referee turning down
appeals for at least 2 definite penalties.
With Harper only called in to action to collect crosses and back passes,
as Gray and Collins dealt with Tranmere's only threat - aerial
bombardment - we never looked like being in trouble.
Eventually, the referee decided that another late challenge by Branch
deserved a booking, but Tranmere's centre half got away with an assault
on barnes moments later which lead to a bit of a brawl on the touchline
with Jacko nearly belting a posh Scouse.
Half time came with everyone happy at Town's battling performance
against a nasty side.
What we needed, of course, was some breathing space and it came via a
superb ball from Barnes to Stewart who stuck the ball away with the type
of class and composure all Town fans know he has, and long for him to
show.
More "afters" by Branch (on Gray and Edwards) went unpunished until he
said too much and recieved a long overdue red card.
Before that, a deflected Stewart shot made it safe and Town stroked the
ball around to their fans' delight and cries of "Olé".
Passion, purpose, fluency, tackling, drive - all present in an excellent
team performance which blew away the Birkenhead ugliness (Aldridge
should be ashamed of himself).
Our manager, however, looked like a man who could not have been happier
as the team formed in his battling image put daylight between them and
other strugglers. "Lacko"? Try telling that to 10,000 true supporters
who gave a standing ovation to his charges.
Harper - Not much to do. What he did he did well and with that engaging
nonchalance. Happy Birthday, Steve.
Phillips - Solid but suffers from not being in an out and out wing back
role. Good game overall though.
Edwards - EXCELLENT. Hardly gave Morrisey a kick and threw himself in to
his work all afternoon. Probably his performance of the season.
Browning - EXCELLENT. Kept driving forward, tackling and competing.
Subbed late on to a great ovation and hopefully has won our hearts over.
Collins - Colossus. His defending was first class and his prodigiuos
throw ins kept the pressure on Tranmere.
Gray - Like his partner, a giant today against two bruising forwards.
OK, his distribution could be better but nothing diminishes his heart.
Richardson - Probing passing, great tackling and excellent cover just in
front of the back four.
Barnes - Very, very good game based on hard work and great front
running. Looks to really enjoy pulling on the blue and white stripes.
Allison - A constant thorn in the side of Tranmere and should have won
us 2 penalties at least. Never fails to do his job and the goal was a
bonus.
Stewart - A combination of hard work and class made this one of his best
performances of the season. Excellent goal.
Johnson - my admiration of Grant is barely disguised and only a goal or
two would add the icing on the cake. ALWAYS there when needed and
incredibly fit.
MoM - Very difficult to choose (for all the right reasons), but
Browning's acceptance by the fans was great to see and well deserved.
Can you tell how happy I am?!