Huddersfield Town 1, Tranmere Rovers 3

Oct 20 2004 By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

TOWN have now lost as many home games this season as they did in the whole of their play-off campaign.

It's a startling statistic and one which will haunt Peter Jackson's side if hopes of a repeat run to the top six start to fade.

To avoid such a fate, Town need to cut out the basic errors which were punished so ruthlessly by much-fancied Tranmere - a team suffering the same fluctuations in fortune as their opponents.

All three of the visitors' goals were gifted through defensive slackness and it proved too big a millstone for Town to carry.

At the other end, despite a brilliantly-struck equaliser from Pawel Abbott on 32 minutes, Tranmere defended well, enjoyed some strokes of luck and that was the difference between the teams.

There was plenty of enterprising football for the home contingent in a crowd of 10,324 to enjoy, especially in the first half and during a stirring late effort to rescue the result, but Town lacked a cutting edge when it came to the crunch.

Jamaican international Theodore Whitmore was the man who provided that for Tranmere, who played 3-5-2 to match Town's system and made the decision pay handsome dividends.

Tranmere went ahead after 15 minutes when Ian Gray's defence were caugth napping at a quick free-kick by Jason McAteer.

Ian Hume - subject of a bid from Preston - managed to hold off the impressive Efe Sodje and poke the ball past Nathan Clarke's challenge to leave Whitmore in the clear to score off the underside of the bar.

An Abbott snap-shot warmed the hands of John Achterberg and some neat attacking around the midfield graft of Jon Worthington suggested a home fightback even before Abbott's cracking ninth goal of the season.