Barnsley 4, Huddersfield Town 2

Jan 17 2005 By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

For this defeat to have similar effects, Town have to find some defensive mettle throughout the side and not become such a soft touch when the wheels fall off.

Two wins in 15 is far from encouraging with a nine-point gap to the play-offs and 10 to the drop zone, but it's the one clean sheet in the last 20 League games which really highlights the current problem facing Town and their defiant manager.

Man of the Match: Lee Fowler

Gave much-needed direction and bite to a Town side who had been completely outplayed in the first half. Just pipped Andy Booth to the award and would have got seven out of 10

How they rated:

Paul Rachubka Poor display by his high standards and he will regret the retaliatory lunge at Chopra which handed Barnsley safety Rating: 3/10

Nat Brown Supplied some decent crosses from right-wing raids in the second half when linking well. It was a struggle in the first half Rating: 4/10

Andy Holdsworth Again at left-back, made a fine early block to deny Boulding as Town came under pressure. Limped off suffering a groin injury Rating: 4/10

Nathan Clarke Off at half time because of a groin injury with Town having been ripped to shreds in the first period by Barnsley Rating: 4/10

Efe Sodje Gave the ball away for Boulding's goal but played better in the second half. Wrestled a fan off the pitch! Rating: 4/10

Chris Brandon Too often spare in the first half but played a great pass for Beckett to earn the penalty. Booked and suspended Rating: 4/10

Tony Carss Moved to left-back in a reshuffle following the Holdsworth injury and much more involved from that wide position Rating: 4/10

Jon Worthington Looked much happier when pressing forward in the second half and tried his luck with several shots. Grafted throughout Rating: 5/10

Danny Schofield The only Town player to have a shot in the first half, he was taken off to get Fowler into the action. Yellow carded Rating: 4/10

Pawel Abbott Not a performance to remember but took his tally for the season to 18 and was also unlucky to hit the bar Rating: 4/10

Luke Beckett Received no service in the first half and denied by a brilliant Colgan save in the second in a decent debut display Rating: 6/10

Spotlight on the ref:

TOWN will hope they don't see Berkshire official Trevor Kettle for a long time to come, and the home side are probably saying the same thing. He had a dreadful match and was far too fussy all the way through.

At one stage, no-one knew what was going to happen next, so inconsistent were his decisions. Pawel Abbott was lucky to get a second chance with his penalty after what appeared a good first save by Colgan, while Paul Rachubka was lucky not to see red for his late barge on Chopra which conceded a penalty

Barnsley: Turnbull; Hassell, Williams, Reid, Vaughan; Shuker (Colgan, Gkp, 50), Burns, Kay, McPhail (Austin 82); Chopra, Boulding (Carbon 71).

Subs not used: Stallard, Wroe.