Huddersfield Town 3, Brentford 2

Sep 19 2005 By Mel Booth, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

It was marvellous stuff, in stark contrast to the incident in which Jay Tabb appeared to be hit by an object thrown from the crowd, and the result confirmed Town are going to stand up and be counted in the battle for honours this season.

Strangely, they seemed to lack the necessary intensity for the first half hour or so, struggling to match Brentford's sharpness to the ball and failing to use it anywhere near as well as the visitors before Rankin's unstoppable shot on the turn put them behind.

It needed a touch of magic to get Town back in the match and Abbott, reacting to excellent work by Adams, provided it with a zipping volley which went in off the underside of the bar for his eighth goal of the season.

Abbott kept the Brentford defence on their toes all through the game with his willingness to run and make himself available and he was never frightened to have a pop at goal, bringing one smart save from Stuart Nelson.

Town had a couple of loud appeals for penalties waved away while Nathan Clarke, who was back to top form, linked with Schofield to set up Chris Brandon for a shot which was smothered on the line.

Paul Rachubka was a virtual spectator but, as Tom Clarke marched 10 minutes from time and Frampton four minutes later, it appeared Brentford would win the day - until Booth had his say, that is!