I AM beginning to wonder if there is a virus in the manager’s office at Huddersfield Town.
We bring players in, then don’t play them (Keigan Parker), and then we bring in a midfield player, Jim Goodwin, and proceed to play him at right-back, leaving the only right-back we have (Andy Holdsworth) either on the bench or play him in midfield.
Now I’ve been watching football (Town) for only a few years (46ish up to press!), so I might have to bow to greater minds than mine.
But if Robbie Williams is a better full-back than David Unsworth or Joe Skarz then I’m a Leeds fan (that will never ever happen).
And what has dropping Skarz done to the lad’s confidence? If it wasn’t a penalty on Tuesday night at Hartlepool then Joe did nothing wrong. Make your mind up, Mr Ternent; was it a penalty or not? If not, why drop Skarz?
Also, what had Andy Butler done wrong to be placed on the bench at Peterborough?
At the moment we are looking at fighting relegation, not at winning promotion.
Give Parker a chance; as from November 15 we won’t have Liam Dickinson, so one up front will go out of the window. Get the team used to playing 4-4-2 or we will be going down in our centenary year, not going up. What a way that would be to pay homage to 100 years of history.
Kev Adams
Fan for 46 years and counting
Timetable of torment!
12.30pm Saturday. Together with partner and son we arrive at a bar situated on the river across the road from the London Road ground. Enter into banter with Posh fans about the two teams, but I’m a little short of personal experience of Town’s form this season. Due to distance and work commitments have had to rely on media and family reports.
12.50. Mum and step-dad arrive with two nephews. Banter continues with Posh fans. Step-dad suggests to locals they should put their money on a 3-0 home win. Disappointed with his forecast; surely we can’t be so bad that a long-time fan is suggesting such a drubbing?
15.12. Not looking good. In away standing end with family, having spent about £90 in total to get in. Mclean opens scoring, surprised it took that long. Midfield and defence a shambles.
15.24. Boyd scores second as Posh break from defence down left. Midfielder playing right back and right back playing in midfield nowhere to be seen. Keeper not without blame.
15.48. Relief for a while. General half-time verdict from the suffering fans is that team selection is dreadful, ‘tactics’ have bamboozled everyone, spirit and confidence is low with the only player showing both of the latter is an on-loan Derby County striker who everybody has sympathy with.
16.05. Teams out on pitch, but no sign of officials; do they know something we don’t? Alas, they arrive three minutes late.
16.21. Whelpdale’s goal is the worst concession of the afternoon from a team point of view. Again we have no right-sided defenders but the cover for the keeper in the penalty area is pathetic, schoolboy stuff.
16.22. Town’s faithful away day fans have had enough. The turning point of the season as far as they are concerned. Volumes of ‘Ternent out’ are followed by ‘You are worse than Ritchie’, ‘Is Wadsworth your best friend?’ and ‘Gerry Murphy’s Barmy Army’. Peter Jackson and Neil Warnock even get favourable mentions, but the vitriol is solely aimed at the current incumbent as the question. ‘Who’s thrown away Deano’s money?’ is greeted with acclaim.
16.29. Town’s keeper, clearly unnerved as he is within five to 10 metres of all these comments, puts the black icing on a black cake by letting one through his legs, an early Christmas present for Mclean.
16.30. See 16:22 but with more emphasis, if that’s possible. Ribald comments are added about ‘Still getting to know each other’, Ternent’s ‘infamous excuse’ apparently.
16.56. Town’s skipper has had enough and invites referee to show red card. Timing of lunge not very intelligent, in more than one sense.
16.57. As the referee draws down the black curtain ever-loyal fans show their allegiance to the club, but the manager has simply lost the backing of the faithful; a fatal blow?
16.58. Town’s fans show sympathy towards the keeper, without whom the team, season wise, would be rock bottom. He acknowledges, but trudges off with a sad expression.
17.00.Then we note perhaps the key to the whole problem. Town’s outfield players and subs come to the visitors’ end to thank them for their support, but one player, who shall remain nameless, apparently indicates to the fans to continue their protest. The most pertinent action of the whole season thus far?
17.20. Back in the pub. My step-dad gets some stick from the Posh fans that have placed a fiver on his pre-match prediction of 3-0. He was badly wrong, as it could have been eight, but buys them a pint and the rest of us to drown our sorrows.
18.00. Our final considered message for the chairman-elect: ‘If you were at the match then some of the above you will be aware of.
However, on this occasion for the fans, please pop into your warehouse and send out 900-plus sympathy cards. Or, better still, just one with some black edging plus an invitation card to ‘The Caretaker.’
John Nutton
Cambridgeshire
Where’s the top team?
HOW long will it be before the board decide it’s time for Stan Ternent to go?
I was at the game on Saturday, but the Town team did not show up.
We have played 13 games, are 19th in the table having scored 19 and let in 26, nine of them in the last two games.
So how long do we wait to see the top team we were promised when he got the job?
I felt sorry for Jacko when people were saying ‘get him out,’ but I feel nothing for Stan now the same is being sung about him.
I know we can’t keep sacking managers, but we can’t go down. This club can play football, but there is something amiss with this team.
Then we have sold 16,000 season tickets, yet I have not seen a 16,000-odd crowd at a home game. So what is going on?
We as supporters need to know what is going on.
We buy season tickets then they sell Panasonic tickets at £2 and so on. Now we have to pay to change seats if we want to go in the Pink Link stand. I think the supporters are being ‘had over’ by the club.
It’s time we were given some truth about who is running the club and how it’s being run.
john mclaren
Huddersfield
A murder condemned
I WRITE to condemn the murder of the British aid worker Gayle Williams in Afghanistan. According to reports she was killed on the false pretext that she had been ‘spreading Christianity’.
No murder can ever be justified but this murder of a lady who went to Afghanistan in an effort to develop local education and support those with disabilities is particularly callous.
It is a grave tragedy that so-called Muslims continue to tarnish the name of Islam by falsely justifying their heinous acts in its name.
Those who perpetrate such crimes claim they are ‘defending Islam’; yet their acts are completely alien to the peaceful teachings of the Holy Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
May God grant patience and steadfastness to Gayle’s loved ones.
Farooq Aftab
Huddersfield
Waiting for research
JOSEPH McManus (Mailbag Oct 20 and 27) is indeed very fortunate to have such wonderful dental health in view of his description of his parents’ neglect of this subject.
But this cannot be definitely attributed to the fluoridation of the water at that time. There are considerable numbers who are equally lucky even during these “unenlightened” times.
We still have to wait for the research on the number of his peers, children of sensible parents, who developed major heart and brain disorders or cleft palate etc due to being lawfully poisoned by the very fluoride which could possibly have helped him.
Nobody has done that research yet, but Birmingham University researchers recently found high numbers of these ailments in children in Taiwan which could be due to chlorine concentrations in their water.
As flourine is a first cousin to chlorine and has separately been found to be at least as toxic as chlorine at certain levels, a case could be made out for it being common assault to compel anybody to imbibe it on a daily basis, and GBH where ill-effects occur. Add to this, to have to then spend money on bottled water because of the foul taste just beggars belief.
Lionel Holmes (Mailbag Oct 24), is right. It should be made easy for children of ignorant and neglectful parents to get fluoride in cheap drinks or some junk food they buy their children, or even put it in stuff which such children spend their own money on.
Why not give it free with school meals and make dental hygiene a compulsory part of the curriculum?
Nowadays, 50 years on from Joseph McManus, the only people who are likely to drink the fluoridated water are those who drink tea and coffee and who at present drink the very pleasant tap water; we all know it won’t be the targeted kids.
Lou S’s parody (Mailbag Oct 25) is nearer to the bone than our politically correct, but sadly, blind authorities will ever care to believe.
Dr R J Jameson
Fixby
Tom and his engines
YOUR picture and text in the Memory Lane piece (Examiner October 23) certainly brought back some memories.
As a young boy in the early 1950s, born and bred in Scapegoat Hill, I remember Tom Sykes of Swallow Lane and his beautifully engineered steam locomotives, which were often run in Greenhead Park during the weekends of the school summer holidays.
The text in the article is incorrect and while Tom certainly built a model of Royal Scot which he had in LMS red livery the locomotive depicted in your photograph is a Gresley V2 locomotive probably named Green Arrow.
I certainly echo your question though on where are these locomotives now.
Melvyn Gibson
Meltham
