Doncaster Rovers 2, Huddersfield Town 1

Aug 31 2004 By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

SHAMBOLIC Town were lucky not to get a real hiding.

The scoreline was highly flattering to Peter Jackson's side, who were embarrassingly second best for all bar the final few minutes.

Many Town fans were heading home by the time Jon Worthington scored with seven minutes left to spark a last-gasp, desperate rally.

It was too little too late, however, as the damage had been done with goals from Leo Fortune-West and Paul Green to delight the home contingent in a holiday crowd of 7,058 at Belle Vue.

In truth, Doncaster were worth a four or five-goal win and if Town don't buck up their ideas and make this outing a painful one-off, it's going to be a long hard season trying to make the grade in Coca-Cola League I.

Town were murdered by Doncaster in the first half, when Simon Marples and impressive James Coppinger ran riot down the right flank.

They linked fluently with Green, who dominated the midfield, and supplied a string of crosses to Fortune-West, Greg Blundell and Michael McIndoe which had Ian Gray's defence in tatters.

Not since they were ripped apart at Macclesfield last December have Town looked in such disarray and the only surprise was that it took 28 minutes for Doncaster to open the scoring.