Oldham Athletic 2, Huddersfield Town 1

Dec 13 2004 By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

AUSTRALIAN sportsmen have been the bane of Great Britain and England in recent years, but this time even Town had to suffer!

Giant goalkeeper Les Pogliacomi pulled off a string of miraculous saves to deny Town a deserved share of the spoils and frustrate a magnificent travelling army of 2,229 fans.

The pride of Parramatta earned rave reviews for his one-handed first-half save from Chris Brandon, but his second-half heroics for Oldham almost defied belief.

He got some goalline help from Mark Hughes when failing to hold a stinging Pawel Abbott drive, but his block from Junior Mendes' deflected drive on 68 minutes and his last-gasp save to keep out Jon Worthington's goalbound half-volley simply took the breath away.

Home coach Tony Philliskirk acknowledged Oldham owed the three points to the "big man", who would have been a Town player two years ago if Mick Wadsworth had had his way.

Pogliacomi's superlative display merely compounded the frustration for Town, their manager Peter Jackson and the fans because they deserved at least a point for a stirring second-half surge.

Oldham's seventh win in succession and ninth in 10 outings, however, came about because of two dreadful defensive blunders by Town, who were incredibly sluggish at the start.

Skipper Dean Holden had already headed a simple chance straight at Paul Rachubka when Oldham took the lead after three minutes and 44 seconds - Will Haining left completely unmarked by David Mirfin at a corner.

Stunned as they were, Town replied superbly just two minutes later when Anthony Lloyd - brought in at right wing-back for Andy Holdsworth, who moved forward to replace suspended Lee Fowler in midfield - drilled in a perfect cross for Abbott to nod his 15th goal of the season.