Chesterfield 4, Huddersfield Town 3

Oct 24 2005 By Mel Booth, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Despite the best efforts of Andy Booth and skipper Worthington, Town couldn't get their most influential player, Danny Schofield, into the game and it was no surprise when he and Tony Carss were replaced by Gary Taylor-Fletcher and fit-again Chris Brandon for the second half.

Town must learn they can't afford to start at a low tempo.

Teams aren't going to give them time and space to play, especially away from home, and more of the intensity they showed at Bradford is what's needed.

It was certainly in evidence in the second half at Saltergate and might have surfaced earlier if one of several decent chances on the counter-attack had been taken.

Steve Blatherwick, who looks like he's been carved from something particularly unpleasant, made a brilliant tackle to stop Booth scoring, while the big striker had a header deflected into the hands of man-of-the-match Barry Roche, the lanky Chesterfield keeper.

Roche then made a brilliant save as Abbott's free-kick was wildly deflected off the wall and, just moments before beating out the penalty when diving to his left, he repeated the act one-handed to again deny the No9.

It was fantastic stuff from the big Dubliner, whose goal came under almost constant pressure in a second period when Holdsworth, Worthington and Hudson were the driving forces and Taylor-Fletcher also did well.

Booth created Hudson's goal after 80 minutes which kept alive Town's run of scoring - now 28 consecutive matches.

Hudson, in fact, got on the end of a succession of Booth flicks and his running from deep not only caused his former club problems but could become a feature of Town's play in the rest of the season.

He wasn't found wanting for a finish, either, as he took the ball around Roche nicely to score.

A bad offside decision against Brandon got Jackson into trouble with dreadful referee Peter Walton - his assistants were even worse - and the match turned decisively against Town only moments later with the penalty award against Mirf.

It still didn't stop Town finishing with a flourish as Booth and Taylor-Fletcher combined to provide Worthington's second of the season and then Holdsworth added another from a lovely Fletch pass.

What a shame Town couldn't get on the scoresheet earlier, because with Chesterfield under the cosh the victory would have been there for the taking.

Instead, valuable points were thrown away.

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