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Between the two goalkeepers it was largely inept stuff and Stan having reshuffled his shallow pack can be thankful that on the night Town were as poor as their recent record. Only one win from their last six and one goal scored in those games, suggested here was a team for the taking. Maybe on another night that would have been the case, but in electing to rest Little and West, Clarets were weak down both wings, Taylor and Blake fed off scraps and with Davis making up the numbers in midfield it was an ineffective Clarets side that struggled past the Terriers.
The first half was largely forgettable stuff, comprising of two teams unable to pass properly, content to either lump the ball forwards or pass to their opposition. Taylor had a couple of half chances and Ian Moore did well off no more than a half chance, whilst for Marlon there were a couple of scares as Huddersfield tried to take advantage of some sleepy defending.
With Alan Moore playing in an anonymous role, Clarets were desperately short of width and with West missing there were no over lappers to carry any threat to the home defence. So all in all, you were content to look around a near empty but impressive stadium except for the visiting section occupied by a couple of thousand Clarets.
The second half was largely forgettable stuff, comprising of one team, Burnley, unable to pass properly, content to either lump the ball forwards or pass to their opposition, whilst for Huddersfield there appeared to be no game plan whatsoever and Marlon had precious little to do for the vast majority of the forty five minutes.
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An out of sorts Blake was replaced by Papadopoulos, before Taylor had Bevan at full stretch tipping away a header bound for the top corner. From the corner Arthur miscued badly from the penalty spot, the ball coming off his Toblerone shaped boots as he attempted a volley when unmarked. Alan Moore made way for Branch, who so nearly won the game in injury time, but Bevan saved superbly, going down low to his right hand post as the fans favourite rifled in a good right footer.
So ninety minutes of forgettable football was followed by twenty nine minutes more. The night’s only moment of quality was the goal ten minutes into the first half of extra time. Ian Moore's superbly weighted pass put Papadopopoulos in on goal and he deftly finished past Bevan tucking the ball neatly into the corner, Sadly, it was not a golden goal, so play continued and not until five minutes from time did the result look in any doubt.
Unsurprisingly, Clarets were defending too deep, the totally unnecessary back nine formation allowed even a team as poor as Huddersfield a chance to attack and they did. But Marlon was equal to two good shots in quick succession and his double save was nothing short of tremendous, recovering well after going full stretch to a powerful low shot to then keep out the rebound, it was a truly fantastic double save. In injury time of extra time, he managed another fine save as even 'keeper Bevan joined his team mates in support of the attacks. But Clarets saw time out and not even another inept referee could find time or an excuse for an equaliser as Clarets and their damned awful yellow shirts left the field to applause from the Lancastrian travellers.
Att:- 5,887
Star Gazer
Alan Moore takes the award on a night when there were many candidates. Another anonymous display of shirked responsibility and minute contribution, left Huddersfield's right back with a very comfortable evening indeed.
Glass Half Empty
Why oh why did we play in the hideous black and yellow outfit? It looks awful and the team seem to fail to recognise one another with the damn thing on. On other matters, the midfield was absolutely dreadful, the Davis/Grant combination failing hopelessly in the centre and you really wonder why it took one hundred and fifteen minutes to bring Paul Cook in to the game.
Star Geezer
Marlon Beresford. Though in large parts of the game he was a spectator, the two saves at the end of the game were outstanding and actually are the reason why Clarets go in to the third round draw. It is a long long time since a save of such quality has been seen from a Clarets keeper, probably not since the last time Clarets played at the McAlpine when one Nicos Superbos kept Huddersfield at bay single handedly.
Glass Half Full
We're through to the Third round of the Worthington Cup.