Huddersfield Town (0) 3
Stewart 64 (pen), 68, Jenkins 72.
Stockport County (0) 0
Saturday 6 March 1999
Attendance 11,914
Reported by
Huddersfield Town: Vaesen, Jenkins (Phillips 80), Edwards, Johnson (Facey 56), Armstrong, Gray, Beech, Hamilton, Stewart, Allison, Thornley.
Subs not used: Williams.
Stockport County: Nash, Connelly, Woodthorpe, Smith, Flynn, McIntosh, Moore, Gannon, Angell, Ellis, Cooper (Bennett 77).
Subs not used: Matthews, Travis.
Booked: Woodthorpe.
Ref: E Wolstenholme (Blackburn)
When Marcus Stewart fell over in Stockport's box, penalty appeals from fans
and players alike were very muted. As virtually every potential penalty
decision has gone against us in recent years, the referee stunned us by
pointing to the spot.
It was less surprising that events leading up to the award revolved around
Facey and Stewart. The former had lit up a tedious game with his pace and
willingness to take risks, and the latter was pure class all afternoon.
The first 45 minutes had been in stark contrast to Tuesday's thriller
against Bolton. Stockport, who must be the least attractive opposition in
the division, put 10 men behind the ball and sat and watched Town play a
pretty but ineffective passing game in front of them.
When the Cheshire men did get forward they looked far more threatening than
Town, and missed a glorious opportunity to realise their game plan just
before the break by shooting weakly at an untroubled Vaesen.
Armstrong also conspired to give Stockport chances with a couple of errors.
It needs to be emphasised, however, that his slip ups were a result of his
obvious desire not to resort to the hoof up field - and his composure was
excellent for most of the game.
At times in the first period, Town's passing patterns were quite neat and
pleasing, if only they could have developed in to dangerous excursions in to
the penalty area.
Unfortunately, little developed down the left, where Johnson's hard work and
prompting never seemed to lead to quality balls in and Thornley and Jenkins
couldn't get far enough down the pitch to put dangerous crosses over.
Beech tried to make runs to unsettle a solid Stockport central defence, but
they went largely ignored. Hamilton did reasonably well as a link man and
looked a little more like the player who controlled the Watford game, but
not enough to convince us that he should be bought.
Despite being utterly frustrated for the whole of the first half - we
created no real opportunities - Town could be forgiven for their inability
to break down a side who are notoriously difficult to beat away from Edgely
Park.
For 15 minutes of the second half, however, Town lost even their passing
ability and it was Stockport who looked the most likely. At this stage of
the game, the cool head of Armstrong kept us afloat and, at last, Jacko
realised that the introduction of a new dimension may be needed to gain a
vital win.
On came Delroy for Johnson, Thornley switched back to the left and the
injection of flair on a game which barely deserved it brought the points.
Minutes after his introduction, Facey found the elusive byline, swung over a
great cross and Allison's header fell at Stewart's clasy feet. In a rare
moment of clumsiness, Marcus fell over and the ref pointed spotwards.
Stewart couldn't miss. His confidence levels appear to be sky high and even
Stockport's rugged defenders couldn't prise the ball away from him when they
were around him in a pack. the penalty itself was one of those risky chips
over a diving keeper. Perfection.
For the next 15 minutes, Delroy terrified Stockport's left back and the
result was secured.
The second goal came when Facey headed on a high ball beyond the keeper for
Marcus to roll in to give us some daylight.
Another exciting burst from Facey ended with the ball at Stewart's feet, who
held on to it until Jenkins arrived to crash in an unstoppable shot.
I got 12-1 for the 3-0 scoreline, but after the hour mark the odds must have
risen to more like 100-1. Luckily for me no further goals were added,
although Facey and Thornley went close late on.
This was one of Town's least convincing performances, and the dubious
penalty award was a massive turning point, but 4 points from Oxford and
Ipswich (!) will give us a real chance of those play offs.
Vaesen - Competent - not much to do.
Jenkins - Not as effective going forward as he usually is in the first half, better in the second. Defensively very sound.
Edwards - Good defensively, little effect going forward.
Johnson - Did his job well in the first half with good passing most of the time. His off the ball running was a bit subdued though.
Armstrong - Errors were more than compensated for by his touches of quality and his composure.
Gray - Found Angell a handful but did well.
Beech - Reasonable, but many of his runs were missed.
Hamilton - Not the answer given his likely cost. OK at times, but better sides would have punished us when he lost the ball on occasion.
Stewart - Worth the admission money (had I paid any!). Purred through the game with exquisite touch, awareness and, of course, goal scoring. Worth £10,000 a week.
Allison - Anonymous and easily shackled by Stockport's defenders. His presence MAY have allowed Stewart a bit more room. Wow.
Thornley - Must hit the byline more. The one time he did (Stewart hit a perfect pass to him in the second half), he turned back instead of hitting a first time cross. Improvement needed.
Facey (for Johnson) - Turned the game. Wish he could do it over 90 minutes, but the subs role suits him at the moment.
Phillips (for Jenkins) - Little impact in little time.
MOTM - Stewart by a mile