Port Vale 1, Huddersfield Town 1

Mar 27 2006 By Mel Booth, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Vale were stretched and, when the full-back's cross was deflected to the back post, Booth nipped in to head his 14th goal of the campaign and his fourth in two matches.

Booth twice went close to increasing his tally as Town powered forward in the closing minutes, while Mirfin clipped the bar with a last-gasp header from another teasing Danny Schofield corner.

At that point, Vale - who led through Michael Cummins' 59th-minute header - were simply hanging on for the final whistle and, if Town had found anything like similar form in the first hour of the game, they would surely have been celebrating three points.

Things might have been different had Mark Hudson made the most of a great first-minute chance, when put clear by Taylor-Flether, but he dragged the shot tamely wide and it set the tone for a dour first half.

Despite working hard and mounting some promising attacks, Town's passing let them down on the sticky, wet surface and Vale, too, also struggled as the pitch cut up.

Phil Senior made an excellent block from Leon Constantine's 14th-minute header, but he was otherwise untroubled as Chris Brandon, Taylor-Fletcher and Hudson did their best to get Town going.

Indeed, Taylor-Fletcher missed the chance of the match after 40 minutes, firing inches wide after Brandon had raided menacingly into the box on the right.