Blackpool 0, Huddersfield Town 1

Feb 15 2006 By Mel Booth, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A clean sheet, therefore, was a credit to Senior and his defence and also to the hard-working midfield, in which skipper Jon Worthington was a driving force.

In attack, Town had to work hard for openings and, before the penalty incident, they had gone closest through Graham, who curled a left-footer inches wide when looking for his fourth goal in as many games.

Time and again, with Brandon and Gary Taylor-Fletcher looking lively down the flanks and Andy Booth winning just about everything in the air, Town were denied by superb covering from Blackpool skipper Peter Clarke, whose partner Rob Edwards was surprisingly named the home man of the match.

Town seemed to get the worst of some heavy challenges flying in before the break, most notably Brandon and Dan Smith, who had to go off just three minutes into the second half as the effects of a late, high tackle eventually took their toll.

It opened the door for Andy Holdsworth to return as a substitute at left-back - David Mirfin was again solid when retaining his place on the right - and Town's only disappointment from the second half will be that they didn't score a few more goals to make the victory more emphatic.

Booth had the best chance on 54 minutes, when played through brilliantly by the clever Graham, but keeper Lee Jones saved magnificently with his outstretched right leg.

Town were getting tremendous vocal backing from their 1,415-strong army of fans (almost a quarter of the crowd) and even the heavy rain which fell for the rest of the game couldn't dampen their spirits.

There were some enterprising breaks, particularly involving Brandon and Holdsworth down the left, while McIntosh and Fletch both threatened from free-kicks as pressure built.

Graham, again, drilled a left-foot shot only fractionally wide as Blackpool were stretched to the full and manager Jackson held his head in his hands when Holdsworth's attempted pull-back fell short of Worthington in acres of space.

There was still time for Booth to fire over the top in the closing minutes and for substitute Njazi Kuqi to test Senior with a low shot, but there was never a clear-cut opportunity for the home side to get back into the match.

It was the first time Town have kept successive clean sheets all season and, not since last term have they won three League matches on the trot.

Now's the time to put that right against MK Dons at the Galpharm on Saturday.