Match report: Huddersfield Town 7 - 1 Brighton & Hove Albion

Aug 19 2009 by Dougie Thomson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

JORDAN RHODES might have failed to make the scoresheet for the first time this season.

But six other Town players did as 10-man Brighton were put to the sword in thrilling style.

Antony Kay, Peter Clarke and Lee Novak, with a penalty, netted in the first half, when Brighton briefly levelled through former Town loan man Liam Dickinson.

Then, after Rhodes missed from the spot, Gary Roberts, Danny Drinkwater and Theo Robinson (twice) all beat Graeme Smith, on for red-carded keeper Michel Kuipers, to make it 15 goals in four games this season.

Town manager Lee Clark named an unchanged starting XI as his side tried to build on Saturday’s 3-1 win over Southampton and clinch a third straight victory in all competitions.

It meant that with Manchester United coach Warren Joyce watching from the Galpharm stands, on-loan Old Trafford midfielder Drinkwater again had to be satisfied with a place on the bench.

Brighton, playing a third successive away game and still seeking their first goal of the season, gave a debut to 19-year-old former Crystal Palace midfielder Jamie Smith.

The visitors, playing a 4-5-1 system with Dickinson up front, made the early running.

They forced three corners, all of them comfortably dealt with by the home defence, before Town went ahead in the 21st minute.

Brighton must have felt hard done by, but the goal illustrated the danger Town pose from both wings.