Huddersfield Town: August 2009

Hello my friends and welcome back to my new story featuring Yorkshire outfit Huddersfield Town.

We left off last time with a pretty decent pre-season build up and I was excited to get the season underway. Before I get into the games it’s worth mentioning up front there was no further transfer activity in or out after the end of July.

So finally it’s our first game of the season and trip to Southend. What a dreary first half it was with very few chances produced and we fell behind in the 26th minute due to some poor marking by the central defenders. Things started to look brighter before half time when midfielder Kabous hit the post but following the break we came out a lot stronger and some good inter changes allowed Novak the space to find the equalizer. A second goal always looked likely for us until goalkeeper Alex Smithies under no pressure whatsoever cleared the ball straight to Moussa who slotted home the second for Southend. It was a real disappointing start to the season.

Up next was the League Cup match away to Bury. I’ve only ever progressed once past the first round in this competition and this game went true to form. Bury totally outplayed us and their front two humiliated the central defenders splitting them wide apart and scoring three goals before halftime, effectively killing off the tie. We eventually ended up conceding four so I must get this defense sorted out. They looked so good in pre-season??

After the humiliating defeat at Bury it was time for our first game in front of the home fans and a difficult one at that against Southampton. A few minor tweaks to our tactic from the previous game coupled with some changes to the starting line up and we suddenly looked a lot better. Again though we ended up chasing the game following a goal by the visitors after the interval but we finally got the equalizer from a lovely twisting shot by Jordan Rhodes that secured us a vital point and prevented a three game losing streak.

We stayed at home for our next game against Brighton. It was a very even contest in terms of possession but once again we struggled to execute in front of goal. Even though thirteen chances were created most were suited to the rugby field than a football pitch and we would have easily won the game if points were given for attempts going over the bar. So it’s back to the drawing board and the training pitch to try and come up with some solutions to this less than illustrious start to the season.

Our following League game was a trip south to face Bristol Rovers. It didn’t take the home side long to penetrate our defence and they took the lead after just 43 seconds! We responded by putting immediate pressure on Bristol but again we seemed to lack the quality or initiative to finish off our attacking moves which only resulted in future forays into their half resulting in wild attempts on goal. Bristol effectively ended the game with a second half goal which left us scratching our heads all the way back to Yorkshire on how to resolve this building crisis.

The final game of a less than impressive month was back at The Galpharm Stadium with Yeovil as the visiting team. No excuses, we had to put in a performance today as we were heading quickly to the wrong end of the table. We set our stall out early showing a more aggressive and attack minded attitude but again the finishing was absent even though we managed to spend the entire first half in Yeovil’s end of the field. The second period went pretty much the same way though Yeovil gained more confidence and managed a couple of shots on goal. Late into the game we finally got the breakthrough when Gasmi went on a scintillating run down the left flank and his cross found Pilkington charging in from the right flank to hit the ball home. We doubled the lead in short order when Sekour broke down a Yeovil attack and his through ball found Rhodes who neatly placed it in the back of the net. Three points at last!!!

So as you can see from the League table below it wasn’t the start I had in mind but hopefully by finishing the month on a high note will produce more fruitful results in September otherwise I could be facing the dubious honor of the first player to get his team relegated or worse still, fired!

We don’t get much rest before our first game in September against League 2 side Burton in the JPT which is one of six games for the month.

That’s it for this month so thanks for reading!