Huddersfield Town v Scunthorpe United

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Football League One

Huddersfield Town :
Smithies, Holdsworth, Nathan Clarke, Butler, Williams, Cadamarteri, Collins, Goodwin, Roberts, Parker (Craney 73), Jevons
Subs not used:
Glennon, Berrett, Kamara

Scunthorpe United :
Murphy, Wright, Byrne, Pearce (Thompson 85), Williams, Sparrow, McCann (Morris 78), Togwell, Woolford (Hayes 73), Hooper, May
Subs not used:
Lillis, Mirfin

SULSESC REPORT

by Vic Duke at Galpharm Stadium

The last game of 2008 and an opportunity for a seasonal bevvy with SULSESC comrades. Not exactly as nobody else turned up at The Grove Inn - doesn't anybody read the secretary's Emails!? Never mind as it was everybody else's loss, the Grove is a beer drinker's paradise. On the day it had 8 regular ales and 10 guests all on hand pumps, plus 7 foreign beers on draft, as well as the usual menus on the tables for the 180 bottled beers. It's amazing that I eventually made it to the game. I started on Adnams Old Ale, a seasonal dark beer. Sticking to the dark side, Idle Brewery's Black Abbott was next (only 4.6%). And to finish, the coup de grace, a Belgian Westmalle Triple (9%). Throughout this imbibing of nectar the landlady provided free pork pies and Scotch eggs.

A 15 minute stagger to the ground followed, arriving just in time for kick off. The away end seemed pretty crowded and I managed to get on the end of a row. I'm sure there must have been some other SULSESC there but I didn't see any, even at the half time break.

As for the game, it was not the best of days for the Iron. Bloody Goodwin scored Town's first goal, and to cap it all Morris was injured near the end, leaving only 10 men on the pitch to charge up field for an (attempted) equaliser. The match was certainly fiercely contested throughout with Goodwin leading the tally of niggly fouls, indeed some would argue that he should have been sent off before the 65th minute. Town started strongly but wasted three reasonable chances. United threatened occasionally on the break, May had a goal disallowed for offside, and best of all, Togwell was unlucky when his shot hit the bar with the goalie well beaten.

A spell of Town pressure early in the second half produced a disallowed goal in the 55th minute. Ten minutes later the Iron's vulnerability to set pieces surfaced yet again. At a corner nobody bothered to mark bloody Goodwin, who promptly headed his first (and probably only ever) goal for Huddersfield. The curse of the ex strikes again. United huffed and puffed but to no serious effect. During the four minutes of stoppage time, even Murphy galloped forward, only for an awful Williams pass to leave Town with an open goal and an easy roll into the net.

A missed opportunity by the Iron in that Huddersfield were not particularly better than us. The usual catalogue of duff decisions i.e. not marking Goodwin at a corner, failing to exploit Butler's lack of pace, and not playing our banker Mirfin the ex. I am writing this after the Watford game, which confirmed that United have gone off the boil. Three consecutive away games (all of which I've attended) without scoring - that's not good enough.