Chelsea 2, Huddersfield Town 1

Jan 9 2006 By Mel Booth, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

FEW will forget the sight of Jose Mourinho shaking hands with every Town player after a sensational Cup contest.

It was the highest accolade from the Special One, who knew only too well his largely international line-up had been pushed to the edge of a third-round precipice where so many big names have perished before.

Mourinho did not leave out the fans, either.

He turned to salute the massed bank of almost 6,200 - whose roar from The Shed filled Stamford Bridge and inspired an heroic second-half show - before leaving the pitch arm-in-arm with the other special one, Peter Jackson.

Only the FA Cup can turn such mis-matches into sporting theatre of the most gripping kind - and it took both steely resolve and international quality for the champions to go through when a Galpharm replay looked seriously on the cards.

If anything, Gary Taylor-Fletcher scored Town's equaliser a fraction too early.

There were 15 minutes left when impressive substitute Michael Collins threaded the ball through for Fletch to clip his 10th goal of the season past a diving Carlo Cudicini.

It sparked the biggest eruption of celebration since Town won in Cardiff but also gave Chelsea time to recover.

Mourinho - shaken much more than his demeanour would suggest - had just sent on Arjen Robben but immediately called Asier Del Horno and Paulo Ferreira from the bench to sharpen the response.

It worked as Robben burst past the covering David Mirfin down the left and teed up Eidur Gudjohnsen for the winner eight minutes from time.