Bristol City 3, Huddersfield Town 3

Sep 27 2004 By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THERE were only 27 seconds of normal time left when valiant Town suffered a final kick in the teeth.

Luke Wilkshire's speculative shot of desperation would not have troubled Ian Gray, but the ball ballooned off David Mirfin as he attempted to block and flew straight into the top lefthand corner of Town's net.

It was a sickening blow for manager Peter Jackson and his side and earned City a point they could hardly have expected when trailing 3-1 with 10 minutes left on the clock.

I say final kick in the teeth because Town did suffer another, in the 80th minute, when Berkshire referee Iain Williamson gifted City the sort of penalty teams can only dream about when they are struggling to get back into a match.

There was barely a brush of shirts between Nat Brown and City striker Leroy Lita as he turned away from goal near the edge of the box.

In fact, Brown did more than enough to try and avoid any contact at all, but the official pointed to the spot and City had the lifeline which brought at least some of their departing fans back to their seats.

Lita - who had missed from the spot in midweek against Everton - gave Gray no chance at all with a fierce right-foot drive into the bottom righthand corner to set up the chance for Wilkshire's late equaliser.