[LU] huddersfield

[DAVID NATTAN]

I must admit,bit like the team last night, I can't raise any enthusiasm for this report.
  Following our successes against Donny, Orient and Carlisle we were all expecting more of the same but we were brought to earth with a crash. It was dire. The weather was atrocious and parts of the pitch were dreadful but there is no real excuse for a performance as bad as that. They were crap, make no mistake about it and were there for the taking but we just never turned up.  The way their fans celebrated at the end was similar to us v Scum, where a victory is received as though we have just won the League whereas to scum fans the defeat is just a blip on the way to success - hopefully the same will apply to us with Walsall failing to take any advantage with a home defeat. We are still in the driving seat for a play off place - 4 points clear with only 3 games to go and our goal difference is vastly superior.
  Anyway back to the game - to me it was summed up in the final minute when we got a corner - Kilkenny had taken the previous two and had hit the first man both times - Carole went to take it, Casper came up - certainly the first time I recall him doing so - so what does Carole do ? Hits the first defender at knee height - a disgrace.
  Douglas showed his stupid side - having been booked he was running for the ball when he was passed by an attacker who started 3 yds behind him, the ball and the attacker were going nowhere but Douglas decided to haul him back - had to be a yellow and therefore off. The good honest pros in this league have obviously all been watching Sky cos 2 Hudds players went running up to the ref screaming and waving imaginary cards to make sure the ref did not bottle it.  We had no cohesion before he went off and things got slightly worse (Howson was given the armband) until the ref decided to even things up - Casper went to ground to collect the ball, the Hudds forward carried on his run a little bit late and went into him - Lubo objected and the two went, quite literally head to head - Lubo got a yellow and Hudds player a red - not sure if straight red for the challenge (harsh) or a yellow for the challenge and another for the 'afters'
  10 v 10 on a big pitch all second half but our lack of width and penetration cost us - we really missed Beckfords pace and general threat. Kandol after doing well (Bambi impressions aside) on Saturday reverted to type.
  Both sides huffed and puffed a bit to no real effect (though they did hit the bar and had another tipped over by Casper and we had a couple of long range efforts - Hughes having the best one) Carole did cause a few problems with his direct style but all to no avail.
  Their goal was similar in a way to Carlisles first - they had acres of space on our right and then the cross eluded everyone till it reached the man they had spare on the far left and he nodded it in.
  There was a bit of fisticuffs in the stand to the left of us - some Leeds fans in there getting a kicking when heavily outnumbered but threw a few punches back. Total police overkill - we got the train that got to Hudds at 7.23 but my mates who got the escort still missed the kick off - I slipped the escort and was in the ground well before kick off. And what amazing trick did I pull to get out of the escort ? did I use my invisibility cloak ? No - when exiting the station the police said - if you're going to game use right hand exit if not use the left - I used the left ! Brilliant police work yet again (think at Millwall I will use the escort !)
   
  So a bad night but lets hope it does not matter in the final analysis
   
  Dave