Huddersfield Town fans made a huge fuss about the initial ticket price for this game, and then snapped up their allocation as soon as it came down to £20. But they were left to wish that they hadn’t bothered, and a few of them left Elland Road at half time!

Daniel Farke gave his starting eleven another reshuffle, with four changes to Wednesday night’s line-up in his efforts to keep everyone fresh. Gray was finally given a rest, with Shackleton playing at right back, and Gruev replaced by Kamara after his anonymous showing. And the wingers were swapped again, as it was Summerville and James’ turn to start.

We needed a big improvement on the game at Stoke, and the team was determined to provide it, playing the first half with the pace and commitment of a side with something to prove. In the first few minutes a great ball to the far post found James in space, but frustratingly he failed to control it and it bounced behind for a goal kick.

Then Piroe had the ball in the net following a free kick, but was deemed to have been offside when the ball was first played in. This season our forwards seem to line up behind the defence at set pieces, no doubt hoping they will step back just before it’s taken, but that doesn’t always work, and we need to be more adept at making sure we don’t fall foul of the linesman’s flag.

But any fears that this might be another game when we dominate and don’t score were banished in the 20th minute. Town’s right back Edwards came forward to take a long throw but sent it straight to Byram, who knocked the ball forward to Rutter. Rutter did well to control it and sent a long ball out of defence to Summerville in the space Edwards had vacated. As he approached the area Summerville cut inside and curled a ball into the path of James on the right, who took a touch before hammering his shot past Nicholls into the net.

For the rest of the half Edwards was made to look like an unfit pub player against the pace and trickery of Summerville and Rutter. For a laugh I’ve had a peep at a Huddersfield forum, and one poster said they’d have been better off with a traffic cone at right back. And another responded that a traffic cone wouldn’t be pulled out of position quite so much, even on freshers’ night!

But Huddersfield did manage a couple of reasonably dangerous forays of their own, and had a good opportunity when Shackleton couldn’t quite control a long ball and Rodon had to be quick to block the shot from Delano, at the expense of taking a knock. Darren Moore was even to claim that the whole game could have been different if they’d taken this chance! Even though we had a total of 15 shots on goal during the match.

It would take too long to describe all these chances we created, but we wasted a couple with players taking a shot instead of playing a simple pass. One such was James having a go from a difficult angle with colleagues free in the centre, and Summerville irritated me by running into traffic and shooting well wide instead of slipping the ball to Rutter. But what do I know. In the 31st minute the Dutchman scored our second with an identical move, albeit with the help of some woeful defending.

He came in from the left and bamboozled Thomas with a couple of foot movements, before cutting into the area and trying a shot despite having a number of players in front of him. I thought it was bound to be blocked, but Helik obligingly moved his foot out of the way (lord knows why) and unsighted Nicholls at the same time, so almost in slow motion the ball rolled past the keeper and into the corner of the net.

And three minutes later it was 3-0. Rutter was bundled over in midfield, but the referee played a good advantage as the ball had run to Summerville. As with the first goal he found James free on the right, and he again had time to take a touch to set himself up for the shot, though for the sake of variety he sent this one past Nicholls into the far corner of the net.

To follow we almost had a hilarious goal as Wiles and Edwards left the ball to each other and Rutter took the ball off them, but this time Summerville sent his shot too close to Nicholls, and the keeper made a fine save. By now Huddersfield were committing fouls all over the pitch as they were frustrated at being run ragged, and when they got to their fourth booking I thought the chances were that they wouldn’t finish the game with eleven men on the field.

And just to increase their embarrassment we scored the fourth goal deep into first half injury time. Rutter came down the left and found Summerville on the penalty spot. He showed some neat footwork to outwit two defenders, as did James in quickly stepping aside to get out of the way. Summerville then placed his shot past Nicholls into the corner of the net.

Inevitably the second half became a bit of an anti-climax, partly because Leeds took the foot off the gas with the game already won. And partly because Huddersfield changed to a more solid formation, with three central defenders and wing-backs. Which mostly became a back five in a damage limitation exercise, as they had no chance of getting back into the game.

As part of this Darren Moore made a couple of substitutions, replacing one of the booked players (Diarra) and inevitably the hapless Edwards. For the most part Leeds were content to pass the ball around and wait patiently for an opening, but once chance did come to Piroe, but the Dutchman sent his fierce shot just past the post.

Just before the hour Farke made his first changes, with Gnonto coming on for Summerville and Ayling coming on for Byram, with Shackleton moving across to take his turn at filling in at left back. But this seemed to slow our momentum even more, as Ayling seemed a bit laboured, even though he should have been fresher than those already on the field. Shortly afterwards Rodon pulled up and needed to be replaced by Cooper.

Our club captain’s first contribution was to make a last ditch challenge on Burgzorg in the area, but Huddersfield did pull one back in the 70th minute. Thomas was left free to shoot from outside the area and it was too fierce for Meslier to hold, and our custodian spilled the ball right in front of him. Which wouldn’t have mattered quite so much if our defence hadn’t gone to sleep, but they allowed Helik to race in unchallenged and knock the ball home.

The final two changes saw Anthony and Bamford on for the last eleven minutes in place of Rutter and James. Bamford got a decent reception from the crowd, so maybe the keyboard warriors who want him to be pensioned off don’t actually come to any games. Our centre forward looked like a man keen to take the opportunity to get his first goal of the season, but when a chance did come his way he sent it wide of the post.

After five minutes of injury time the final whistle put Huddersfield out of their misery, and we could celebrate a fine comeback after Wednesday night. Which did of course maintain our position in third place, but irritatingly Leicester and Ipswich both won yet again. If we’re to stand any chance of catching them we need to start to match their consistency and perform like this in pretty much every game.

Reuters

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