Huddersfield Town 3, Walsall 1

Oct 4 2004 By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

VICTORY said as much about Town's squad strength as it did about Pawel Abbott's excellent finishing.

Town had five major players sidelined through suspension or injury and still managed to beat Walsall with something to spare.

It was thanks to an excellent double from Abbott and a first League strike for the club by Junior Mendes, who ran half way down the pitch in celebration before putting the manager's bad back to the test by leaping into his arms.

It was engaging entertainment for another 11,000-plus crowd, but everyone appreciated the crucial saves of Ian Gray in helping Town move up to a handy seventh place in the table.

The big keeper blocked three times when Matty Fryatt was clean through on goal and was only beaten when Nathan Clarke inexplicably headed into his own net from Paul Merson's cross with 17 minutes left.

By then, the job was done.

Peter Jackson's side had taken control with two goals in the space of 88 first-half seconds and, when Abbott converted Andy Holdsworth's brilliant through ball with 68 minutes on the clock, it was the first time Town had scored three times in three successive matches since December 2000, when Crewe, Wolves and Nottingham Forest were spectacularly put to the sword.

This wasn't quite so impressive, but there was enough in a gritty, workmanlike performance to suggest Town can stay among the challengers, especially with Andy Booth, Efe Sodje, Danny Schofield, Jon Worthington and Rob Edwards to come back into the equation.