Huddersfield Town 1, Luton Town 1

Feb 7 2005 By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

OVER 11,000 Town fans went wild with delight as hitman Luke Beckett proved he's a prestige predator at this level.

Four minutes and 49 seconds into stoppage time at the end, the Sheffield United loan man nipped through to rescue a richly-deserved point for Peter Jackson's hard-working side.

Not only did it take Town's tally to four points off the League I leaders this season, but his fifth goal in just three outings lifted the spirits of the whole Galpharm club.

Another defeat on top of that sickening reversal at Walsall would have been hard to take, especially as Town gave as good as they got for much of a tight, gripping and ultimately exciting contest.

How fitting that Andy Booth should feature prominently in the equaliser, flicking on a long punt from keeper Paul Rachubka for Beckett to lob home when turning in the box.

Booth was excellent throughout on an afternoon when Jackson rested leading scorer Pawel Abbott and went to a 4-4-2 formation with Adnan Ahmed making a full debut in central midfield.

The new-look shape worked well in a highly-promising first 30 minutes including half chances for Booth and the returning Danny Schofield and enough neat approach play to keep Luton's 1,048 fans pretty much silent.

That changed on 33 minutes when, against the run of play and with grave suspicions of offside, Mike Newell's side took the lead through Ahmet Brkovic, who slid in to score after big Steve Howard missed a cross from Kevin Foley, who caused plenty of problems down the right.

Howard's miscue was enough to wrong-foot David Mirfin for a potential clearance, but the build-up focused firm attention on Suffolk referee Mike Thorpe and his assistants, who appeared to get worse as the game went on.

With Luton pushing up to squeeze the space in the second half and, also, blatantly wasting as much time as they could, the frustrations of Town's faithful at some bizarre decisions were more than understandable.