Bournemouth 1, Huddersfield Town 1

Apr 17 2006 By Mel Booth, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

STUBBORN Bournemouth frustrated Town but could yet do them some massive favours this season.

After today's trip to Port Vale, the Cherries play Colchester at home, Forest away and Brentford at home to round off their season.

Sean O'Driscoll's side will clearly have a major say in the race for automatic promotion while safeguarding their own position seven points above the drop zone.

If they play with the resolve shown against Town, then that trio of promotion-chasing clubs are not going to find it easy to take points off the impressive Neil Young and Co, especially at Dean Court.

Not only did Bournemouth defend with all 11 players in the box at free-kicks and corners - often crowding out Town in the final third as they chalked a sixth successive match without defeat - but they showed enough attacking spark through midfield and 20-goal leading scorer James Hayter to trouble anyone on their own patch.

It took superb last-ditch tackles from Mark Hudson and Jon Worthington, for instance, to prevent Stephen Cooke and Hayter from scoring, while goalkeeper Paul Rachubka made a brilliant 85th-minute stop from Eddie Howe's flying header.

They were moments to illustrate Town's determination, too, on a day when manager Peter Jackson opted for a 3-5-2 formation for the first time this season and was rewarded with a solid display to complement some patient passing and neat attacks, even though his side didn't have anywhere near enough efforts at goal.

That Town were unable to keep a clean sheet was down to an awful mistake by Rachubka in the 34th minute.

Jackson's side - with Tom Clarke as the extra centre-back - had dominated to that point and it was a sickening blow when Steve Fletcher's tame 15-yard left-footer slithered under Rachubka's body and dribbled over the line.

Credit to Rachubka, though, because if the blunder was playing on his mind he didn't let it show.