Huddersfield Town: November 2010

Hello friends and welcome to the next update of my Huddersfield career.

Results at a glance

We opened November with an FA Cup 1^st round match away to Eastbourne. Given the opposition I decided to play mostly fringe players as it was a good opportunity to rest the first team. After what was a sluggish start we went ahead from a superb curling free kick by Andy Nowlan who seems to come with the goods whenever he gets a chance in the first team and his effort inspired the team and opened the floodgates. Striker Morten Nelison grabbed himself a well deserved hat-trick as he played his heart out and Robbie Simpson put the icing on the cake with a powerful effort just before the final whistle. Following the game were drawn away to League One leaders Millwall in the next round.

The following game was another cup tie away to Grimsby in the JPT quarter-finals. Although our opponents would be a lot tougher than Eastbourne I only made a couple of changes to the previous line up. The young lads did tremendously having the lion’s share of the game though the only goal came from Andy Nowlan who barreled his way into to box to score from a Berrett through ball. Young striker Moguena was particularly unlucky and could have had a couple of goals himself but nonetheless we are through to the semi-finals for the second straight year.

We were back to league action at home to Brighton and the turf at The Galpharm Stadium was looking decidedly the worse for wear. The surface seemed to have an effect on both teams performance with very little being created though we managed to secure the only goal on the game in the second half after the ball fell kindly to Pilkington after a “pin ball” style attack and he tapped it in. Oscar Jannson pulled off a stunning flying save late in the game to ensure victory.

Our next game was a trip to Meadow Lane to face Notts County. From the opening kick off the home side came at us like a team possessed with wave after wave of attacks, challenging for everything and putting pressure on us constantly. However we sustained the onslaught and in only our second attack of the game Rhodes put us ahead just before half time meeting a delicate lob on the volley from left back Joe Skarz. Both Jansson and Bartley had to be replaced at half time and after the interval the pressure started again. We held on as long as we could but the equalizer eventually came a minute from time and so another two points dropped.

We stayed away from home for the first of a double header against Millwall who are leading the league. From the opening kick off I knew we would have our work cut out for us as Millwall looked a lot stronger than us and easily took care of our attacking moves. Although they were getting more chances than us we did hold our own defending the goal until some abysmal marking from a set piece gave the home side the lead. After the break we started to make inroads and finally Rhodes who was having a fantastic game broke down the right flank and his square ball found striker Robbie Simpson to fire home. When it looked like another draw was on the cards poor marking again proved to be our downfall with Millwall getting a late winner from a corner.

We remained in London for the next few days as we faced Millwall again in the second round of The FA Cup. As I’ve done in previous cup games I went with mostly fringe players and for the most part they gave a good account of themselves. Surprisingly we opened the scoring through New Zealander Mike McGlinchy who hasn’t featured much in the first team and so picked up his first goal for the club. Millwall though as in the league game piled on the pressure and soon got the equalizer before half time. Goalkeeper Elliot Parrish pulled of a string of second half saves for us and so we managed to force a replay back at The Galpharm Stadium.

Finally then we had a home game to end the month off with the visit of Oldham. Charlie Austin who had been out of sorts lately returned up front to renew his partnership with Rhodes and after four minutes he was on the score sheet heading in from a Rhodes chip into the box. Gasmi made it 2-0 with a lovely curling free kick that left the Oldham goalkeeper stranded and Austin got his second of the game from a glancing header again with Rhodes the supplier. Being 3-0 up at half time I was expecting a to add to that lead but Oldham came out fighting in the second half but our back four played admirably for the first time in ages and in the end we ran out comfortable winners.

Current League Table

With the free transfer market coming to a close this month I picked up another defender by the name of Steve Gohouri whose has great heading ability which I hope to put to good use  from attacking corners as well as defending of course.

December Fixtures

So that’s it for this month. We’re a bit adrift of an automatic promotion spot though could still be in contention for the play offs. A  busy month coming up including that replay against Millwall. Wish me luck!

Thanks for reading