For Those who Could not Attend

For Those Who Could Not Attend.

Huddersfield Town FC Saturday Jan 2020
Team.
Roos, Wisdom, Davies, Clarke, Forsyth
Rooney, Holmes, Bird,
Waghorn Martin. Lawrence
Substitutes :- Marriott, Shinnie, Roos, Knight, Malone, Josefzoon, Ravas

Referee: Craig Pawson
Attendance: 27,502


Having lost narrowly at Bristol on Wednesday the team might be ready to resume their home invincibility. That defeat has almost put the kibosh on any play-off hopes and leaves Cocu with the important job of bringing on his young academy hopefuls and amassing a points cushion against upcoming adversity.

Our performance wasn’t great today. There were brilliant flashes in a generally mundane showing that, someway explained why we are quite a few points above Huddersfield. The Tykes they had their moments too. The first half was more or less even-steven. They were energetic with a plan to disrupt and waste time as long as the score was even and heavily mark Rooney all game. They have two (at least) pretty sharp players, especially O’Brien and Bacuna. They caused a lot of trouble but Derby’s defence kept them at bay. The ref was capricious quite ridiculously. There were two back passes which Lossi picked uo and he never noticed. Rooney, from his place in the middle sprayed passes around quite effectively except once when it went direct to a Huddersfield player. Someone won the ball back so it was of no importance though it showed the great man is not infallible. Waggy made some good runs down our right wing and put in some great crosses, that nobody quite latched onto. Disaster (sort of) struck when Holmes was injured. He vainly tried to run it off but after 10 minutes of limping around, Shinnie was brought on to replace him. Holmes is by far our most creative player, always likely to open up their defence by his pace and clever turns. Half time came just as Huddersfield were getting on top. It was good time for the Rams to regroup.

The game continued pretty well balanced but The Rams looked the more likely team to score. And so it proved that from a corner on our right, Rooney passed to Shinnie well outside the area. He played a lovely ball to Tom Lawrence, at least 25 yards out from where his shot flew like a bullet into the top right corner. Lossi didn’t even move. It was in the net before he could register a shot had been made.

Since without Holmes, no Derby player had looked like scoring, It was the sort of super goal that was needed to break the deadlock. In fact, the goal enlivened Huddersfield more than it did Derby and the game went frantically from end to end. Waggy had s superb diving header miraculously parried by Lossi - the ball rebounded to Waggy and Loss made second great save. A goal then would have sunk the Tykes without trace. They continued their attacks. In midfield, Bogle, who has only just come on for the injured Wisdom tamely headed the ball to Tofolo who broke strongly down our right wing and crashed in a shot which Roos expected to be a centre and he was beaten at the near post. Blameworthy? Impossible to answer - it was a great shot from a narrow angle.

The less said about this referee the better. So! Say no more! As Eric Idle would have it. For Derby, Wisdom did some good things but this pressure on places is causing our full backs not to penetrate down the wings where Martin and Waggy and Lawrence could well convert any resulting decent cross. This applies especially to our youngsters, Bogle and Lowe. Fossie and Wisdom handle the competition better, but It makes the youngsters too nervous. Holmes was playing well until his injury. If it’s long term he will be sorely missed. Rooney was himself and it seemed to me his match fitness has increased. RD has it that, after the game, he takes his kids out on to the turf to play with them. He was closely marked all game but he still got some telling passes in. Bird played well and looks powerful in spite of his slight frame. Lawrence had one of his excellent games. His goal was a worldy and he made some good runs and also defended well. Waggy did very well and was unlucky not have added another great diving header to his tally. Chris Martin had some fine touches and lay-offs and had a good game. I think Bogle needs to be rested for bit but encouraged that he will be back a better player soon. I think a draw was a fair result and Huddersfield should survive. For Derby the play-off hopes are out and they now need to amass as many points as possible to cushion any points docking the EFL may inflict. As well it is to be hoped they will nurture the oodles of young talent at the club for next season’s assault.