Huddersfield Town 0-1 Hartlepool United: Examiner match report
Dec 27 2010 Huddersfield Daily Examiner
IF TOWN’S last home performance of 2010 left an impression on their fans it was that they lack bite.
In fact there is an old song that goes ‘All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth’ – Town certainly needed some teeth up front.
For a side who held the whip-hand in terms of possession, they created few chances and it was their patient visitors who made their attacks tell when they broke out.
That does not necessarily translate to saying that Town’s strikers were poor, in fact manager Lee Clark tried to remedy their ills by throwing on Lee Novak and Alan Lee to end the game with four strikers on the field, but the service into the danger areas was never crisp or decisive enough to be turned into clear cut chances.
Admittedly the Hartlepool side has to take some credit for that.
For their manager Mick Wadsworth it was a victory for the way he set his side up to combat the strengths of his former club and for central defender Sam Collins, who started his career with Town, it was a true captain’s performance as he marshalled his troops to perfection.
The visitors were also aided by the stunning display from 19-year-old keeper Jake Kean.
On-loan from Premier League Blackburn, Kean showed his top-flight class with a string of good stops and as Town piled on the pressure in the last quarter hour he denied Benik Afobe, Scott Arfield and Gary Roberts as they had the best of Town’s opportunities.
But for Town it was another story of frustration seemingly getting the better of them.
They started brightly enough with Jordan Rhodes almost playing in strike partner Joe Garner after three minutes and, within seconds, a foul on Gary Roberts led to Graham Carey curling a free kick over the Hartlepool bar.
But perhaps the telling moment came on 14 minutes when an excellent move down the right saw Anthony Pilkington exchange passes with the overlapping Arfield and he pushed the perfect pass that allowed Pilkington to dance through on goal, only to see Kean make a great save at the near post.
That pretty much wiped all the gloss off Town’s sparkling start and steadily they started giving up possession with a string of misplaced passes and players being caught on the ball.
Town still created openings with Rhodes’ glancing shot from a Roberts cross going close, but Hartlepool were sensing they could pose the home side problems purely by forcing the game and getting into Town’s faces.
They had already started to look dangerous – Antony Sweeney and Leon McSweeney both forcing saves from keeper Alex Smithies – before they got their noses in front.
