Huddersfield Town 1, Doncaster Rovers 2

Oct 18 2006 By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A HORRIBLE late blunder by Nathan Clarke was punished to ensure Town's miserable recent record in this newly-named competition continued last night.

Town's formerly footsure centre-back, who hasn't been himself this season, had already had one let-off when giving the ball away - Lewis Guy missing when it was easier to score from a Jason Price square pass six minutes from time.

But there was no reprieve three minutes later when, with the score 1-1 and a penalty shoot-out looming, Clarke repeated the mistake and Price teed up Guy to make amends.

While there's no use crying over spilt paint and at least it didn't cost League points, the goal ended Town's unbeaten run at five matches and left them with only one win (against Morecambe) in the League Trophy since they bowed out to Blackpool's Golden Goal in the Northern Final almost five years ago.

That's not a happy statistic for one-time finalists and this latest setback came at a time when Peter Jackson's side could have done with maintaining momentum ahead of the League I trip to Port Vale on Saturday.

In truth, Doncaster deserved their win for playing well after taking the lead through Price on 25 minutes and for withstanding most of Town's best efforts in a second half when Andy Booth notched his 127th goal for the club to equalise on 61.

That strike from 25 yards, after good pressure from Pawel Abbott and a bad kick by keeper John Filan, put him third in the all-time list of scorers ahead of Billy Smith and behind only Jimmy Glazzard and George Brown.

What a shame it didn't count for more.

Other plus points for Jackson were the performances of young defenders Aaron Hardy - on his Galpharm debut - and John McCombe, plus the sharpness of substitute keeper Paul Rachubka, who replaced leg-injury victim Matt Glennon on 31 minutes.