Town Starting XI; Smithies, Dixon, Lynch, Clarke (c), Hunt, Scannell, Southern, Norwood, Clayton, Rhodes, Novak.
Huddersfield were handed their first chance of the game as Oliver Norwood crossed for Lee Novak who's near post header was flicked over due to being pressurized from his Forest marker. Nottingham immediately started to pass the ball around and came very close to opening the scoring as the impressive looking McGugan struck the post with his long range effort. The midfielder was controlling things in the early stages of the game and featured in the next chance for Nottingham Forest just a few minutes later. Blackstock put Alex Smithies to the test twice withing quick succession but the young goalkeeper passed with flying colours with two decent saves.
Scannell was looking extremely focused and was regularly running past Brendan Moloney at right back for Forest and in the 21st minute he passed it to Clayton who chipped the ball over the defence into Novak's path. Novak made a beautiful contact with his first touch only to do exactly the opposite with his second as he shot over the bar. Simon Cox was staring to get involved in the game and he should of really given the visitors the lead but he failed to put his shot from five yards out past Smithies in the terriers goal. Smithies then had to pull off yet another amazing save to deny Adlene Guedioura from over thirty yards out.
Half an hour into the game the woodwork came to Huddersfield Towns rescue yet again. Dextor Blackstock had an effort cleared off the line by the terriers skipper, Peter Clarke, before his rebounded effort was deflected by Clayton onto the bar and over.
 |
| A tough first half test for Huddersfield. |
Nottingham Forest started the second half just as they finished the second and were nearly rewarded for their dominance in the 51st minute as Blackstock tried his luck again only to be denied by a typical Peter Clarke block. However, just a minute later it was Huddersfield Town who could of taken the lead as Norwood swung a corner into the box only for the ball to find Southern but he could only put his stabbed shot over the bar of Lee Camps goal.
The game settled down for the next ten minutes as Huddersfield tried to stop the crisp passing of Forest by keeping hold of possession but they couldn't prevent Simon Cox from giving the visitors the lead in the 69th minute. McGugan had been having a quiet second half compared to the first 45 minutes but he provided Cox with a beautiful through ball and the highly rated striker finished superbly to send the travelling Forest fans into ecstasy.
Grayson stuck to his formation/tactics until making a last ditch attempt to give the terriers some sort of hope by making a double substitution by bringing on both Arfield & Ward. However, things didn't change and the terriers continued to fail to make any sort of opening as Nottingham Forest aimed to see out the game & ultimately all three points. Nottingham Forest started to become under immense pressure late on into the game but it looked like they were going to hold on to a deserved win as the game slipped into stoppage time.
Jack Hunt had spent most of the game being double-marked by Forest who obviously had done their research on the defender but he burst forward with the ball deep into stoppage time and was caught by an unfair challenge inside the box from Dan Harding. Penalty! Jordan Rhodes stepped up for the terriers and calmly slotted past the goalkeeper with the help of the inside of the post to send the home crowd wild. Just seconds after the restart the full time whistle was blown to end the game in a draw.
 |
| Rhodes celebrates in front of thousand of Town fans |
No comments:
Post a Comment