I was encouraged by Saturday's draw as the addition of Wright and Simms made us look more solid at the back and more threatening up front. It doesn't look like Simms will be playing a full game for a while yet but bringing him on for the last half hour will do for now.
I like the look of Amad Diallo and he's certainly not afraid to have a shot. Huddersfield are currently bottom of the league, though their form over the last five league games is actually better than ours. Anyway, I fancy us to get a win and given the fluid nature of the league at the moment that could well move us up several places. I’m working late tonight so I'll be racing back home to tune into SAFSEE in time. My match prediction is 2-1 to us.
I got home about five minutes before kick-off and saw that Roberts was starting but Clarke was nowhere to be seen. I had a great deal of difficulty getting the audio to work on safc.com but eventually succeeded. I’d been checking on the BBC Sports while I was doing this and it was clear that Huddersfield were well on top in the opening stages. It was a bit of a replay of last Saturday’s game in that we could barely put anything together and had to weather another storm at the back. Eighteen minutes in we produced a good attack and if Cirkin hadn’t rushed it, he may have scored but as it was he shot wide. Just after that an Evans effort was spilled by Nicholls in goal but Dajaku shot wide too. Disappointing but at least we’d relieved the pressure and were putting on some of our own.
It settled down into an even game but a big factor was the torrential rain which was clearly slowing the ball down and could well create a crucial mistake or two. Commentator Benno criticised Roberts for not, “Pulling the trigger” as he kept moving around their box without shooting. The game had to be stopped when part of an advertisement broke loose and blew on to the pitch. I’d never heard of such a thing before but a couple of security lads raced on and dragged it off so play could resume.
Huddersfield appealed for a penalty a few minutes before the break but referee Oliver Langford wasn’t having it and as Amad broke away he was fouled by Camara who received the first yellow card of the game. I could hear the rain stotting off the roof of the stand and it remained 0-0 as the half-time whistle finally went – there’d been a stoppage right at the end because Nakayama had been down injured. It sounding like a shaky performance by us while Huddersfield had enjoyed much more possession but we’d got through it without conceding and had had a couple of decent chances ourselves. No doubt changes would be made before too long. Benno predicted Simms on for Dajaku.
Apparently the rain stopped during the break but had started again as we kicked off again. Nakayama had been replaced by Diarra but more importantly Simms was on for Dajaku. I looked forward to brighter things. Huddersfield started strongly with Diarra having an attempt and then a Kasumu shot glanced a post as it went wide. Pritchard tripped over his own feet much to the delight of the home fans who chanted, “What a waste of money.” That was surely good incentive for a goal. Diarra was sounding a right handful and Patterson was forced into a good stop and then Rhodes shot over the bar. Next thing we were ahead in the fifty-fifth minute and it was Pritchard of course who shot into the bottom left corner from close range after great build up by Amad and Roberts. Around the hour-mark we made a couple of changes, bringing on Neil and Ba for Evans and Embleton.
That baiting from his former fans had been a real shot in the arm to Pritchard as he was buzzing around all over the place and as a whole we were getting on top. The clock was running down very quickly and soon there were only about fifteen minutes to go. We won our first corner following a battling run by Simms but it only resulted in O’Nien being penalised for being miles offside. Shortly after that Roberts skied a good chance but at least the ball was mainly up their end. Our fans were singing their heads off despite quite possibly being very wet. Matete replaced Roberts with eleven minutes to go and he always adds some muscle to the side. With four minutes to go Ba and Jackson clashed in what Benno and Barnes thought was a fair challenge (BBC Sport described it as a bad foul) but it resulted in Ba being booked and Jackson being the second Huddersfield player to be carried off. Diarra was still going on the occasional dangerous run but we’d defended well. One minute to go but there was bound to be a good deal of stoppage-time. Five minutes were duly announced. Bennette replaced Pritchard with the latter being booed by the home fans – he must have felt great. Huddersfield won their fifth corner and goalie Nicholls came up for it but Boyle headed well over the bar. In the ninety-sixth we counter-attacked and from a Simms pass Amad got our second with a right foot shot. It ended 2-0 to much joy from our fans.
Once again after a bad start we rallied in the second period with Simms coming on and this time we went one better and got a deserved win. Three points, a clean sheet and we’re up to twelfth.
