Huddersfield Town 1, Torquay Utd 1

Jan 10 2005 By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

It was one a a catalogue of chances created by Jackson's side, who with better finishing, or perhaps with Abbott on the field or Torquay goalkeeper Olafur Gottskalksson off it, would have had the match sewn up long before Hill let fly.

Akpo Sodje shot wide when Efe nodded on Nathan Clarke's long ball after nine minutes, and McAliskey should have done better than stab a shot straight at the Icelandic stopper from Akpo's cross a minute later.

Then, on 14 minutes, neither Akpo Sodje nor McAliskey could get clean contact after Chris Brandon caught Craig Woodman napping and played the ball to right-back Nat Brown, who put in a teasing cross.

Torquay old boy Brandon had another lively match in midfield, and after good approach play by McAliskey, it was his stinging shot which Gottskalksson tipped over to concede the corner from which Town scored.

Two minutes after the goal, Brandon headed over from a Carss cross, and two minutes after that, Akpo Sodje found himself in a great position to meet McAliskey's curled ball into the box, but headed wide.

Sodje had two further efforts before the break, his low drive in the 33rd minute being cleared by Steve Woods, and his snap-shot in the 44th deflected for yet another corner (Town forced nine in the course of the game).

Town were playing into the wind in the second half, but that didn't halt the flow of home attacks.

Brandon fired over from Carss' looping cross in the 49th minute, McAliskey's header from Carss' 51st-minute corner hit the inside of Gottskalksson's right-hand post and bounced back out, then Danny Schofield's 54th-minute shot was tipped over.

Even after Torquay equalised, Town continued to force the pace in a fruitless search for a deserved winner.

Carss' header from Schofield's 67th-minute cross was saved, skipper Jon Worthington's 68th-minute volley from the edge of the box was blocked, and Efe Sodje's flick from Nathan Clarke's 69th-minute long throw looped onto the top of the bar.