Huddersfield Town 3, Doncaster Rovers 1

Apr 11 2005 By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

BUOYANT Town stormed to victory and gave loyal fans the luxury of not having to bite their nails!

Never at any stage did Doncaster suggest they could make a game of it after Pawel Abbott, Andy Booth and Chris Brandon had all scored at vital times in the game.

Doncaster's equaliser was, in fact, one of only two shots on target in the entire match, which says everything about how Town defended from the front in hard-working fashion.

While Booth's goal confirmed him in fourth place among the club's all-time scoring legends on 109 - one ahead of Les Massie - it was also a day for Town's young starlets to impress scouts from 18 clubs, including top-flight Chelsea and Manchester United.

They didn't disappoint.

Tom and Nathan Clarke played solidly together as centre-backs in a four for the first time, David Mirfin continued his excellent run of form at right-back and Danny Adams marked his debut with a string of terrific crosses, including one for Booth's goal and another the striker had saved.

In midfield, the workaholic Jon Worthington ruled the roost and Adnan Ahmed got better as the game went on, crunching a late drive just wide when Town were comfortably on top and threatening a rout.

The skills of Danny Schofield and pace of Brandon proved a constant thorn in the side for Dave Penney's injury-hit team, who looked up against it from the moment the grafting Abbott marked his return to the side with a 23rd goal of the season on just 59 seconds.

The fact he had a free header from Nathan Clarke's long throw summed up Doncaster's frailty at the back in front of 2,070 travelling fans and they were well under the cosh before Fortune-West took advantage of a rare slip by Nathan Clarke to redress the balance.

The setback did not knock Town out of their stride, with Brandon going close and Worthington having a shot deflected onto the bar, but Doncaster were starting to find their feet when Booth knocked them out for good.