It was a great day at the John Smith’s stadium yesterday, as Leeds finally achieved an away win over Huddersfield Town, those local rivals we care so little about!

As ever there was a pleasant atmosphere around the John Smith’s with the usual chavs’ corner on both sides, in the blocks of the two side stands nearest to the away end. I got the impression that they’re not that keen on Leeds “scum”, and they and they seemed to take a particular dislike to us singing ‘Marching On Together’!

There was one change in the starting line-up, with McCormack recalled instead of Diouf, and he managed to put in a lively performance over the whole of the ninety minutes, showing that his fitness problems are finally behind him. Before the game I was optimistic that this could be the match when we could break that hoodoo of never winning in Huddersfield, bearing in mind the form of the two teams, but it didn’t seem to be going that way during the opening half an hour.

Huddersfield began the contest looking much the livelier of the two teams, although we might have expected that, seeing as it was their cup final rather than ours. I was trying to see how Adam Clayton performed after his pre-match comments, but it was hard to pick him out from a distance, as they seemed to have two other players with an identical hairstyle.

All the same, the Terriers were bossing the midfield in the early stages, and it was no surprise when they took the lead in the 12th. minute. Clayton made a run across the edge of the box to draw Peltier out of position, then played a neat ball to find Atkinson overlapping down the Huddersfield right. I thought he looked offside but the officials didn’t, and the Huddersfield man made no mistake with his shot across Kenny into the far corner.

After that Kenny had to make a good save from another Atkinson effort, but the turning point came in the 35th minute. Becchio played a ball back to Tonge just outside the area and Smithies seemed to have his shot covered, but suddenly a couple of seconds later it was in the net, and with players in the way I couldn’t see how it had happened! I now know from the TV that Smithies had let in it slip through his grasp, and it’s not the first time he’s done that against Leeds.

I remember he made similar howler at Elland Road in 2007 when he let a Jonathon Douglas shot go straight through him, the event which caused the “1-0, it’s your keeper’s fault” chant to be born. Funnily enough that was another occasion when Town had been the better side up to that point, yet Leeds went on to score four.

The goal caused a bit of bother as Leeds fans started celebrating in two different home stands, with Huddersfield fans bravely rushing down to have a go at them while they were being led out. I hope they at least managed to remain in the stadium for long enough to see the second goal, which came only two minutes after the first.

A long ball down the field found Mc.Cormack in space, and he held the ball up until Becchio arrived on the edge of the box, and when the ball was rolled back to the Argentinian he smashed home a shot that gave Smithies no chance. In my excitement I couldn’t resist the temptation to show the bloke next to me my betting slip which showed I’d backed a 2-1 Leeds win at odds of 9/1, even though I knew this was tempting fate with so much of the game still to play. So you can blame me for what happened next.

As a free kick came into the box several players from both sides fell to the ground in a heap, and the referee decided that Becchio was the culprit for hauling down Clarke . Adam Clayton stepped up to take the penalty and calmly rolled it into the corner as Kenny dived the wrong way, before setting off for a rather unnecessary celebration in front of Neil Warnock (the manager who would have kept Clayton at Leeds if Bates had agreed to his wage demands).

But Leeds had woken up by now, and we went on to dominate the second half completely as Huddersfield seemed to run out of stamina after the effort of chasing around so much during the opening half hour. As the pressure mounted Thomas set a shot just over and Byram had a header cleared off the line.

As Warnock looked for the breakthrough he took off Thomas, who was running out of steam once again, and introduced Ryan Hall as a straight swap. Meanwhile agent Grayson was thinking that Alan Lee was easily Huddersfield’s best player, so it’s about time he was substituted as well, though he later justified the decision by saying that Lee “wasn’t going to last ninety minutes”.

Hall looked keen to impress, and one of his runs down the left led to our third goal in the 70th minute, after Becchio had collapsed in a heap on the touchline following a tackle and the ref had played advantage. Hall beat a defender before rolling the ball across to Norris, and three Town players stood back and gave him time to flick the ball up and place his shot right in the far corner to put Leeds back in front.

I still thought we would need another goal to clinch it, so it was agonising to see Smitihies atoning for his earlier mistake with fine saves from Hall and Green, but by now Huddersfield were posing no threat at the other end, so it was game over when we scored our fourth with five minutes left. Hall sent over another good cross from the left and Becchio climbed well to get to it above two defenders, and sent a powerful header looping into the net from twelve yards.

That was the cue for the fans in the block to our left to depart en mass, which was hilarious after all their hostility before the start of the game. I’ve never seen a full block of seats emptying so quickly before the final whistle, though a few of them made ‘see you outside’ gestures as they left (which in actual fact, they didn’t).

I thought there was no need for Warnock’s time-wasting substitutions on 90 minutes, with Brown and Gray coming on, although Brown went close to scoring our fifth with a fierce shot from outside the box that went just over the bar. Soon after the ref decided to spare the Terriers any further embarrassment, by blowing the final whistle, and a memorable game came to an end.

There was still time for the biggest surprise of the day, as I found a half-decent fish and chip shop on the way back to the station, just when I was beginning to think the town had so such thing.

This was our first win in Huddersfield since 1963/4, although yesterday was only the 13th. time we’d played them away since then. In all the other seasons since 1964 the clubs didn’t meet because Leeds were in a higher division, and there have been no seasons when Huddersfield have been in a higher division than Leeds. Of course, the last time we won in Huddersfield we went on to win promotion, so should we start to get excited about what lies ahead?

Photo: Action Images

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