Huddersfield Town: February 2011

Hello friends and welcome back to my story.

Results at a glance

We started the month off with a home game against league leaders Southampton who had run us ragged at St Mary’s stadium earlier in the season but that was not to be the case today. As usual in the pouring rain Charlie Austin out us ahead after only six minutes after a well worked attack initiated by Joe Skarz down the left flank that culminated in Gasmi finding Austin to make it 1-0. Gasmi himself added the second when he was brought down running into the box and duly converted from the penalty spot. Although we kept searching for a third it never came but we dominated the game throughout the ninety minutes and it as only tiring legs that allowed Southampton to pull one back five minutes from time. A great win though nonetheless.

Our next game was also at home with Gillingham being the visitors to The Galpharm Stadium. We didn’t get off to the best of starts with the visitors taking the lead from their first attack of the game and we were behind inside five minutes. The players rallied though and new signing Sigborsson laid the ball off nicely to Kikcut to make it 1-1. Morten Neilsen added a second with an absolute screamer from 20 yards which almost broke the net, Kikut being the supplier from the right flank. Gasmi added a third just before half time with a Beckham style curling free kick that left the Gillingham goalkeeper for dead. Sigborsson continued to torment Gillingham defence in the second half and was unlucky not to get on the score sheet when his rocket of a shot cannoned off the post just on the hour mark. Still we picked up another three points in an effort to consolidate our play off position.

The following game was the second leg of the JPT Northern Final which we led by 5-0 from the first leg. Neither team offered anything during the entire game and we didn’t even get a shot on goal. Right from the opening kick off there was an attitude of “what’s the point” and that reflected in the final score. It was a disappointing way to reach Wembley for the second straight year where we will face Southampton once more.

We travelled north for our next to face Carlisle. Our early pressure paid off within the first ten minutes when Gasmi made a lovely run down the left flank and his drilled cross into a crowded box was met first time by the foot of Sigborsson for the opening goal. The home side were not to be deterred and fought their way back into the game though by half time the score remained at 1-0. Early in the second half Austin doubled our lead with a well placed shot from outside the box but minutes later Kikut gave away a penalty and Carlisle were back in it. Kikut though made up for his poor tackle with a floating free kick that found the head of Gasmi for what proved to be the decisive goal. Gasmi however would pick up an injury late in the game and would be out for 4–6 weeks which is a bitter blow.

Gary Roberts returned to the starting line up against Bristol Rovers to replace the injured Gasmi and produced an inspirational first half performance setting up all three goals which won us the game by half time. The first of those was a well placed diagonal pass that found Pilkington on the opposite side of the field and he drilled it home first time. The second and third goals both came off headed corners with Roberts delivering inch perfect crosses into the box. Rovers never really threatened our goal with Steve Gohouri playing solidly in the back four.

The final game of the month was a trip to the County Ground to face Swindon Town who were battling against relegation. I was expecting to pick up another three points and even though we had the greater share of the possession we couldn’t really turn that into goals. Charlie Austin got our only goal against his former club and at the other end Krystian Pearce was turned in a nightmare performance in the centre of defence that ultimately was responsible for the two Swindon goals.

Current League Table

March Fixtures

So that’s the winter months over and we’ve consolidated our position in the league and reached the JPT Final for the second straight year and hopefully we can win it this time around.

Thanks for reading.