Huddersfield Town 3, Oldham Athletic 2

Jan 30 2006 By Mel Booth, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THE faithful have a new hero to worship. Confident David Graham completed a remarkable Town fightback with a sublime winner and then slid to his knees before an adoring Kilner Bank.

It was the stuff of which debut dreams are made and catapulted Town back up to third in the table.

The loan man from Sheffield Wednesday could scarcely have wished for a better Galpharm start and when, with his legs turning to jelly and only 13 minutes left he was substituted, there wasn't a single Town fan left sitting as he walked off to a tumultuous ovation.

These were sweet moments for the 27-year-old Scot, who has had a tough time at Hillsborough, and he richly deserved the accolade for his quality contribution to a Town display which explored both ends of the performance rainbow.

Graham must have wondered what he'd come to when Town fell two down to Chris Porter and former loan favourite Luke Beckett in just 32 minutes.

Indeed, had it not been for two brilliant saves by Phil Senior to keep out Chris Swailes and Beckett in the early stages, Town would have been out for the count.

Town were so leaden-footed and lacking in ideas that it was hard to remember when they'd last played so badly and the boo boys in a crowd of 12,973 were getting ready to exercise their vocal chords when Danny Schofield produced a magical jink and cross to force Guy Branston into conceding an own goal.

That was only moments before a half time whistle and, while the boo boys may have saved most of their anger, manager Peter Jackson certainly didn't.

He verbally caned his side more ferociously than at any stage since his return to the club - berating them for failing to compete with Oldham's strong, physical and more lively approach - but even Jackson must have been blinking in disbelief when his side drew level within 100 seconds of the re-start.