Rochdale 2, Huddersfield Town 2

Aug 1 2005 By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

PETER JACKSON pulled no punches after watching Town concede two goals for the first time in pre-season over at Spotland.

Town needed a brilliant Andy Booth header and a Pawel Abbott penalty to twice come from behind after Rickie Lambert and Grant Holt fired Steve Parkin's League II battlers ahead.

"That's probably the worst we've defended in pre-season," admitted the manager.

"The centre-backs were at sevens and threes and we've got to be a lot tighter at Forest on Saturday.

"We didn't win the play-offs or finish last season with eight wins out of nine by giving away silly goals, so we have to get back to basics and start keeping clean sheets.

"If we do that we'll be fine, because our fitness and our general play is good and I'm confident we'll score goals, but defensively we still have some work to do."

There was little Town could do to stop the ninth-minute free-kick opener from 25 yards of Rickie Lambert, who is arguably the best dead-ball specialist in the lower divisions.