Huddersfield Town: September 2011

Hello friends and I hope that you are all ready for what I expect to be an exciting World Cup starting tomorrow and I have the day off work! Anyway, on to my Huddersfield report….

Results at a glance

We opened up a new month with an away game to Reading. The first half was very entertaining with both teams creating chances and Jansson was playing particularly well in goal for us. As the second half got underway the Estrada – Borja partnership started to look lively down the right side and Borja’s through ball set up a thunderous shot by Sigborsson which was parried away straight into the path of Pilkington and it was 1-0. Reading though were right back at us and kept the pressure on for most of the second half but Emmanuel-Thomas whom I slotted into the DC position was giving a “Stuart Pearce” like performance and seemed to be everywhere when they attacked. Indeed it was Emmanuel-Thomas who cleared our lines to Borja who took off like a greyhound and his cross found the head of Sigborsson whose effort went in off the upright and sealed the victory.

Next up was a home game against Southampton and neither side ever really got going and so the match resulted in one of those “bore draws”.

The following game was a trip to St. Andrews to face league leaders Birmingham and the home side got off to a dramatic start with a goal inside a minute of the kick off.  We replied eleven minutes later when Emmanuel-Thomas sprinted down the left flank and his beautifully flighted ball into the box found the head of Borja and it was 1-1. Birmingham pilled on the pressure and Jansson was equal to the task pulling off some fine saves. New signing Dave Mackay was struggling in defence and at half time I had a word with him along with Gunnarsson and Bayod. After the break Bayod (MR) showed signs of improvement and it was his through ball that found the feet of Borja and his shot whistled passed the Birmingham keeper to put us ahead. In hindsight I should have taken off Mackay as two defensive errors from him later in the game both resulted in goals and cost us the match.

It was off to Carrow Road for our next game against Norwich City and for the first time I left Sigborsson out of the line up going with Morten Neilsen up front with Borja. The game for the most part was pretty uneventful until Emmanuel -Thomas came on for a tiring Gasmi and he suddenly lit up the game with his burst of speed done the left flank. Three minutes from time it was his run that set up Borja whose shot was saved and the rebound fell to Pilkington whose shot was saved but that rebound fell to Thomas who smashed it into the roof of the net for the winning goal. It’s a real dilemma now whether to start loanee Emmanuel-Thomas or faithful servant Gasmi down the left flank? Daniel Estrada fractured his wrist during the game and will be out for 8 weeks.

As an aside my application for the French national manager was rejected.

We were back at the Galpharm Stadium next for the visit of Coventry City. We got off to a great start when a long throw by Nicolas Bayod into the box found Borja who had enough time and space to turn and placed the ball into the bottom left hand corner of the net after twelve minutes. It didn’t take long for Coventry to equalize as a long clearance by their goalkeeper caught Gohouri off guard and the bounce fell favorably to the Coventry striker and it was 1-1. The score remained the same until the interval but after the break a well worked inter-change of passes set up Sigborsson who fired one home from 20 yards out. Nicolas Bayod who was having an excellent game  was moved into the MR position from right back and got a well deserved goal himself latching on to a Garrido cross to complete the victory.

Current League Table

Next months Fixtures

Well that’s it for this month and I’m quite pleased with our league position as it’s higher than I expected to be honest. We start off next month with a difficult away game to Preston who are one place above us.

Thanks for reading everyone.

Authors note:

I maybe using a different format for my next post as I’m finding the current style a bit challenging to keep up with as it seems to be taking longer to move rom one match to the next.