SOBS V HUDDS

The Lads, or rather the second string, took on Lynden Gooch's Huddersfield of League One and lacked any real energy until the second half, by which time we were a goal down. An equaliser by Guiu came when we were on the up, but an enforced break in play stalled our impetus and it ended level. We went straight to penalties, and the closest we came to a save was one going in off Patto's hand. Aleksic's effort failed to hit the target and it was 6-5 to the Terriers and the end of our League Cup campaign before it had got started - yet again. Boo.

With a good-sized and noisy turnout from West Yorkshire, we faced North, as is now the way, and they kicked off on a pleasant sunny evening with our team lining up:

Patterson

Huggins Mukiele Masuaku Jones (H)

Rigg Neil (c) Le Fee Roberts

Isidor Guiu

... and a bench of Seelt, Aleksic, Jones (J), Abdullahi, Middlemas, Moore, Tuiterov, and Whittaker.

Returning former Lad Gooch got a good reception, as you'd expect, but I was more interested in out two debutants in central defence - a pair of big fellas. We set up with three at the back, occasionally four when Jones dropped back.

Eight minutes of pretty uninspiring stuff from us ended with a Huddersfield corner on our right, which we headed away, but only to the edge of the box from where it was volleyed high into the net with Patto having no chance. Not the start we wanted - some folks say we should concentrate on the league as this cup doesn't matter but I disagree - it's a good opportunity for the squad players to get a proper competitive run out.

While the visitors looked energetic and dangerous on the break, we didn't, but managed to win a corner on the right which Roberts took short to Rigg and was offside for the return.

Our next one was also on the right, so we let Masuaku take it as he'd been pinging some decent long balls out of defence, but the visiting defence got it away. Our next cross was from Rigg on the right, and it was headed over by a defender for another corner. This might sound like we were casing problems for the Terriers, but we weren't really, as we simply weren't taking any shots. There was a yellow for a shove on Enzo in the middle of the park, then he hurt himself with an accidental high challenge and needed a fair amount of treatment.

From the eventual free we did win the ball back and have a couple of shots but they were charged down before three added minutes were announced. 0-1 was probably a fair reflection as we'd not had a shot on target and Patto had made two saves, even if they were of the type I'd had stopped. Probably. Possibly.

Huggins was off, and Jones (J) on for the second half. Issy moved out to the left and immediately began to look dangerous - far more than in the first half, anyway as we switched from 4-4-2 or 5-3-2 to 4-3-3. A few minutes in he used his pace to get a cross in, and Jones knocked it wide, which was much more encouraging, and soon after than a miskick by the visiting defence let Guiu in, but there were blue and white bodies being flung in front of him, and his shot, like the two that followed, were blocked with the last going off a defender's face for a corner.

Their keeper needed some treatment before the corner could be taken, but we made nothing of it anyway. Neil then played a nice one-two before slotting it through to Issy, but his low cross flew across the box and somehow evaded everybody. It came back in and we won another corner after something very close to an OG, but that was hit far too deep. Right on the hour, Issy was fouled on the corner of the box and Enzo fired in a typical curler that was tipped over. From the corner on the right, Mukiele dived in at the back post but put his header wide. This might sound like we were well on top, but Huddersfield were always likely to break at speed, with Gooch obviously well up for that sort of thing.

There were more corners, then a low cross from the right dinked into keeper's arms by Roberts. Another corner on left was played to Roberts but he shot high and wide. Oh dear.

A Huddersfield break with twenty or so to go could easily have brought their second, but the free header from a right wing cross was put over. We countered that with a deep cross from the right that was headed just wide of near post on 73, then we then shot into side netting.

With less that fifteen to go, off went Issy - which was a bit of a disappointment as he'd looked out best bet down the left since the break - replaced by Aleksic, and Mukiele replaced by Seelt.

Almost immediately, and while we were still mumbling about the removal of Issy, Jones (H) set Aleksic away down the left and he, replacing Issy's pace with muscle, eased Gooch out of the way to put in a lovely cross that Guiu nodded home from a central position.

Reet, let's get this game won - we were on the front foot, the crowd had responded to the increased positivity on the field, and there were at least seven minutes to go. With Huddersfield players dropping like flies due to an outbreak of cramp, we looked like the side most likely to win it despite not playing that well.

Then something happened in the next section to me in the east stand on and the medics were in quickly to do whatever it was they needed to do, while the players had a conflab and some fizzy pop. In came a message from our Ian, asking if I was OK (as he said, what would the reply have been if it was me?) Anyway, as we applauded the medics, up went the "twelve added minutes" sign, and, well, we lost a bit of the urgency that we'd showed for most of the half and got a bit raggy. Having said that, another from Aleksic went in off a defender's arm and we duly celebrated, but the ref pointed and we wondered why he'd give a penalty when it had gone in anyway - but it was a free kick to them! The 12 added became 16, then I was steeling myself for extra time which we'd win because they weren't as fit as us.

Check the rules, dafty - it's straight to penalties, at the north end. Basically, Patto bounced around like something unpleasant was going on in his shorts, and they went something like..

Enzo low to keeper's left, Paddy high to his right, Cap'n Dan sent him the wrong way wrong way and scored to his left, Patto was very close to their 4th, Rigg copied his skipper, Gooch fired in off Patto's right hand despite my pleas for him to do the right thing and miss, Seelt basically walked up to the ball and stroked it to keeper's right. 5-5. Their 6th went in, then Aleksic's was tipped round the foot of the right hand post and that was it.

Done for by a poor first half, really, but we should have done more during the bright spell we had in the second. If anyone was looking to play themselves into the team for Saturday, they didn't, although the two new Lads at the back showed enough to indicate that they can do a decent job for us. Perhaps one of them might get the nod to partner Alderete.

Man of the Match? Probably Masuaku.