I’m writing this report on Sunday morning having had no time to even start any preparatory work before the match. The reason for this was that I was to travel by car in the company of of Jacob Bassett and his dad, Stephen from Sussex Blues OSC, an organisation that I’ve just joined. As well as sourcing me a ticket for the game, Jacob and Stephen kindly offered me a lift up to darkest Yorkshire. They were coming up from Worthing and we arranged to meet at Cobham Services on the M25 which is about half an hour’s drive from me. I drove there and paid the car parking fee for 15 hours which was an eye-watering £33.00 but needs must when the devil drives and all that. We left Cobham Services at about 08.00 and it had been my intention to start writing this piece in the car but frankly it was so much more interesting to talk to Jacob and Stephen. We talked at length about life, Blues and all things blue and the time flew by. The journey seemed to fly by in equal measure and we reached Huddersfield just before midday having made excellent time. James, another member of Sussex Blues had arranged a parking spot for us at a Premier Inn called the Apsley where we enjoyed a refreshing pint. We then went in search of some food. Jacob had been introduced to a sandwich shop in the town centre called the Merrie England tea shop (see picture) on a previous trip to Huddersfield where he reliably told me they served a hot beef and onion buttie which was to die for. It was! Lovely sandwich made from proper fresh ingredients and so much more appetising than a greasy burger. We returned to The Apsley for another couple of scoops before walking the short distance to the ground.
The last time that I visited Huddersfield was in the 1960s when they played at their old ground, Leeds Road which was an old, dilapidated stadium with one open side. It had a capacity of 16,200 and by 1994 when it closed and the club moved to their new modern venue it was no longer for purpose. I remember the pitch had grass only in the corners, the rest was a dry diamond of mud, a far cry from the carpet surfaces the modern professional footballers play on today. My Uncle John took me to the game and we lost 2-0 to a brace from a young Frank Worthington playing in the famous Terriers sky blue and white stripes. The match was in a similar time of the year as I recall.
Blues started lively in this one and frankly should have been ahead early on when Jay Stansfield broke down the left, cut inside and squared the ball for Miyoshi who in turn fed Keshi Anderson on the right. He elected to take a touch rather than hit it first time with his right foot. He got the shot off with his left and pulled the ball wide from twelve yards. This sort of thing has been a recurring theme all season; missing good chances and getting punished later. Miyoshi was equally guilty when repeating the same thing a little while later; taking a touch when a first time effort would have served better. Miyoshi did learn from this error when on the stroke of half time a delivery from the left by Anderson this time evaded all the home side’s defenders where Miyoshi in an identical position did hit it first time with his right foot, across the keeper, into the bottom corner to send the sold out away contingent at our opposite end of the pitch delirious. Overall we had been the better side and I honestly believed that we would go on and consolidate the win in the second half. I hadn’t taken into account of course the infinite ability of our team to shoot themselves in the foot. It was obvious that Huddersfield were going to come out all guns blazing at the start of the second half and it was essential to concentrate, switch on, do the basics and keep it tight for the the first 15 minutes then go again. What do our lot do? We allow an easy ball into the channel down the right. The pass from Turton to Rudoni, the best player on the pitch all afternoon in my opinion was a good one to be fair but what happened after that was wholly inexcusable.
The Huddersfield midfield played a simple ball into our box around the penalty spot where Rhys Healey had the simplest swept finish he will ever have in his career! There was no Blues player within yards of him! The two central defenders are ball watching and the midfielders have totally failed to track the goalscorer. Healey is in splendid isolation in the middle of our penalty area with our players watching from a distance with their thumbs in bums and brains in neutral! If this proves to be the goal that ultimately seals our drop into League 1 it can only be looked upon as a total dereliction of duty from professional players utterly failing to do their jobs for which they are handsomely paid compared many of the assembled throng that had travelled miles at great expense to support. The frustrating thing is, this was the only true chance that Huddersfield created all game apart from a shot by Rudoni in the first half that bounced off the turf and over and another right at the end from Ward that flashed narrowly wide of Ruddy’s left hand post from 30 yards. In short the goal they scored was a gift from us. They huffed and puffed and showed fight and grit but the truth is Huddersfield offered little and ended up relegated anyway whilst leaving us favourites to join them.
As for us, the second half performance failed to match our first but Miyoshi did feed a through ball to Jay Stansfield near the end who slid his shot across the keeper shaving the paint off the foot of the post. Substitute, Lukas Jutkiewicz was a hair’s breadth away from a good delivery from a set piece by Pritchard near the end but time ran out. Despite the point we are still in the bottom three but at least it is clear what we have to do next week against play-off bound Norwich; win and depend on Plymouth to draw at best or for one of three other rivals to lose. A packed St Andrew’s expects!
The Good: The beef, onion gravy sandwich, the company of Stephen and Jacob, my fellow travellers, the away support who turned out in their droves and deserve better.
The Bad: Huddersfield’s goal. Of all the examples of poor defensive play this season this has to go down as the worst.
The Ugly: The atmosphere among some of our number turned toxic at the end of the game. There was some booing of the players and a rendering of “you’re not fit to wear the shirt” towards them was wholly uncalled for. Look, I share the disappointment and frustration of this result which at this stage of the season has to be seen as poor but I would not accuse the players out there of not trying their best yesterday despite the concession of the goal. We have an important match next Saturday and we have to be as one as a club. Booing and negative chants towards the players does not help and I heartily condemn those who engaged in such behaviour.
Huddersfield Town: Lee Nicholls 6, Matthew Pearson 6, Michael Helik 7, Brodie Spencer 6, Jack Rudoni 8, Josh Koroma 6 (Sorba Thomas 58, 6) David Kasumu 7, Oliver Turton 7, (Bojan Radulovic 79, 6) Alex Matos 7 (Ben Wiles 68, 6) Danny Ward 6, Rhys Healey 7.
Subs not used: Delano Burgzorg, Chris Maxwell, Jaheim Headley, Thomas Edwards, Ben Jackson, Tom Iorpenda.
Goals: Healey 47.
Yellow cards: Rudoni 80.
John Ruddy 6, Ethan Laird 6 Krystian Bielik 6, Dion Sanderson 7, Lee Buchanan 7 Paik Seung-ho 7 Ivan Sunjic (Lukas Jutkiewicz 77, 6) Koji Miyoshi 7 (Alex Pritchard 77, 6) Keshi Anderson 6 (Marc Roberts 77, 6) Juninho Bacuna 5 (Siriki Dembele 65, 6) Jay Stansfield 7.
Subs not used: Neil Etheridge, Tyler Roberts, Jordan James, Gary Gardner, George Hall.
Goals: Miyoshi 45.
Yellow cards: Buchanan:35, Anderson 75, Bielik 86, Laird 89.
Referee: Matthew Donohue: 5; I thought this official had an indifferent game. He wasn’t truly awful but there were too many incorrect calls in my view and it was frustrating that clear yellow cards weren’t given and yet he cautioned three of our players near the end for honest attempts to win the ball. Bielik was particularly unlucky. Huddersfield in contrast got off lightly. Despite all this there were no obvious decisions that affected the result and bad calls happened for both sides so I suppose there’s consistency there. The assistant nearest us to the left as we looked at it was poor. He missed an obvious offside in the build up to Rudoni’s chance that cleared the bar and hit the stanchion behind the goal. This was close and had it registered we would have been robbed again.
Just like on Saturday there have been so many games where our players have switched off this season, games they have controlled and then gifted goals to the opposition and games where they don’t seem to have been aware that the match was even in progress.
It is not out of order for fans to show their anger after what should have been a boring but safe season collapsed into possible disaster because of the lack of professionalism by so many players. Players get well rewarded, so it is only fair they accept the criticism as well. As long as it remains verbal and goes no further I don’t see the problem.