Huddersfield Town - 1 (Lucketti 25.)
Crystal Palace - 2 (Gray 44. Ruddock 51.)

Almost a year ago to the day Palace lined up against Huddersfield Town at the Alfred McAlpine stadium, and 90 minutes later they were "licking their wounds" after having been well and truly beaten 7-1. The team that lined up today saw only four of the original 11 take to the park, and only two of the others were on the bench. The faithful Palace travelling supporters were simply hoping that today would prove a bit more fruitful for the side, and they were not to be disappointed.

The match started poorly for Palace, with Simon Rodger leaving the field due to a head injury. For eight minutes we played with only 10 men, and just when it looked as though Alan may have to bring on a substitute Simon returned, and played as good a game as has ever been seen. Fortunately, during this period of play we did not concede a goal.

The game continued with no clear chances for either side, until, with 25 minutes gone, Chris Lucketti, the Town skipper, curled in a pass to Clyde Wijnhard, which somehow he contrived to miss. To Stuart Taylor's horror though, he also missed the ball.

Believe it or not, the ball simply lobbed into the back of the net with Stuart stationery at the other post. That he had anticipated Wijnhard's strike well is undoubted, but Clyde missed, and so did everyone else!

Town appeared to be playing better and better, and some of the travelling fans must have been starting to consider that their worst fears were about to be realised. As the first half drew to a close Palace made one last attempt at goal, and a mix up in defence following a Morrison pass into the centre, saw Julian Gray in a vast amount of free space. He calmly headed the ball down and levelled the scores.

Clinton Morrison was generally making a nuisance of himself, but nothing had worked for him, including getting himself booked for handball, but now there was everything to play for in the second half.

Palace came out after the break, and put in a consistent effort to break the deadlock, the pressure going all one way. Despite the run of play going with us it is the usual way of football that the defending side strikes first, usually from a breakaway move. Whilst the Palace supporters were watching for this Jamie Pollock was putting in his usual first class performance. Making a run up the right hand side of the field he put in a pin-point cross which found Neil Ruddock once again on hand to simply head the ball home, and put Palace in the lead for the first time in the match. Neil 'Razor' Ruddock had put Palace into the lead, at 51 minutes, for the second successive match, and elevated himself to the top of the Palace scorers in the process! From this point the fight seemed to have been knocked out of the Town side, and a confident Palace looked to put in the final goal that would well and truly seal the match. We thought that we had got it when Leon McKenzie came on for Mikael Forssell, his first touch of the ball producing a penalty after a poor tackle from Kenny Irons. Somehow though Hayden Mullins allowed Vaesen the easiest of saves, if any save from a penalty can be called easy.

A final chance went begging when Leon missed a sitter when presented with an open goal.

With no time left those that were harsh mumbled something about "we hung on", when in truth we were by far the superior side in the second half, and for once really deserved all three points.

Alan was pleased with the win, but stated that it would be back to training tomorrow morning, to get ready for the visit of Nottingham Forest. Let's hope for a similar result to today!

Colin Pryce

Huddersfield Town: Nico Vaesen, Jamie Vincent (Chris Hay 77), Chris Lucketti, Craig Armstrong, Jon Dyson, Kenny Irons (Delroy Facey 82), Simon Baldry, Chris Holland, Scott Sellars (David Beresford 63), Clyde Wijnhard, Martin Smith.

Substitutes not used: Martyn Margetson, Rob Edwards.

Crystal Palace: Stuart Taylor, Fan Zhiyi, Neil Ruddock, Hayden Mullins, Simon Rodger, Clinton Morrison, Tommy Black, Julian Gray, Mikael Forssell (Leon McKenzie 70), Jamie Pollock, Craig Harrison.

Substitutes not used: Jamie Smith, Jamie Fullarton, Dean Austin, Stephen Evans.

Attendance: 10,670

Referee: Mr T. Jones (Leeds).