Martin Paterson arrived at Huddersfield Town aiming to prove he can be a 20-goal Championship hit.
If his confident finish three minutes from time which sealed a 1-0 victory against Rotherham United at the New York Stadium is anything to go by, he might just be right.
The 26-year-old Northern Ireland international rewarded 421 travelling fans in a crowd of 2,445 with a first win of pre-season ahead of Wednesday night’s next test against Real Betis at the John Smith’s Stadium.
The goal came from excellent work by Adam Hammill – also sent on for the final 22 minutes of the match – who weaved his way past a couple of would-be tacklers before setting up his fellow summer signing.
More of the same when the proper action starts on August 3 will be the call, because Town wasted much of their best approach work with poor final passes and crosses.
Steve Evans’ newly-promoted League I side were no pushovers – ex-Town man Joe Skarz let Jack Hunt and Adam Clayton know he was around with a couple of scything tackles! – and they had enough threat in the pace of Kieran Agard and link play of Alex Revell to keep Town’s back four on their toes.
Town were intent on playing out from the back wherever possible – it almost cost them on 19 minutes when Alex Smithies had to plough through Michael O’Connor’s challenge to clear one short back-pass – but there were plenty of encouraging passages of attacking play.
Jordan Sinnott looked for openings the whole time, as did Clayton and Oliver Norwood, while Hunt and Paul Dixon provided options out wide.
Sean Scannell, too, was more than a handful for the Millers’ strong defence, especially in the first half, and how James Vaughan and Danny Ward didn’t emerge with a goal remains a mystery.
Ward’s shot parried by keeper Adam Collin on 12 minutes, with the rebound blazed over by Vaughan, was as good a chance as was created by either side, and Vaughan was perhaps unlucky to have a strike ruled out for offside when turning in Clayton’s drilled low free-kick.
Smithies did well to turn away a deflected shot from Michael Tidser, but his effort was more than matched at the other end when Clayton found a superb 40-yard pass to free Vaughan wrong side in the box, but substitute keeper Scott Shearer produced a magnificent one-handed reaction block to thwart Town’s hard-working No9.
Shearer was one of nine changes made by Rotherham at the break, which slightly disrupted their flow.
But Town continued passing the ball neatly and, when boss Mark Robins started to ring the changes towards the end, they were able to stay nicely on top, inflicting a first defeat of pre-season on Rotherham, who saw off Bolton Wanderers only last week and are in buoyant form.
It was fitting that Paterson – who produced a fantastic cross with his first touch for Vaughan to be pushed over in the box for what looked a certain penalty – should get the winner, and it was just the tonic Town needed with less than a fortnight to the opening of the Championship season.
Town – Alex Smithies; Paul Dixon (Jake Carroll 68), Joel Lynch (Tom Smith 87), Peter Clarke (Murray Wallace 68), Jack Hunt; Oliver Norwood, Jordan Sinnott (Kallum Higginbotham 78); Sean Scannell (Adam Hammill 68), Danny Ward (Martin Paterson 68), Adam Clayton (Matt Crooks 88); James Vaughan (Danny Carr 88). Subs not used: Ian Bennett, Liam Ridehalgh.
Rotherham – (first half) Collins, Bradley, Davis, Morgan, Skarz, Worrall, O’Connor, Tidser, Milsom, Revell, Agard.
Rotherham – (second half): Shearer, Brindley, Arnason, Mullins, Milsom (Rowe 70), Noble, O’Connor, Pringle, Rose, Nardiello (Walker 76), Hylton.
