Huddersfield Town - 7 (Beech 18. Wijnhard 25. 60. 64. Irons 36. Stewart 47. 74.)
Crystal Palace - 1 (Linighan 69.)

With a scoreline like that, where can one really start a match report? I suppose that we could start with the good news by saying that Andy Linighan scored his first goal for the Club for over two years! And if we could finish the report there everything would be fine, but unfortunately there are just a few more goals to tell you about.

The match got underway between two sides that were looking at fairly poor starts to the season, with Town having been held 0-0 by second division opposition in the Cup during the week.

Both sides held their own for the first 18 minutes, but suddenly everything seemed to go wrong for the visitors. Clyde Wijnhard and Marcus Stewart combined well to allow Chris Beech a good chance at goal, which he did not waste. Their second came just seven minutes later when Stewart's shot hit Dean Austin and fell to Wijnhard who simply picked his spot and fired the ball past a wrong footed Fraser Digby. Two goals down, it was time for the side to wake up, which they did when Clinton Morrison turned in the area and flashed the ball across the face of goal. Unfortunately no-one was there.

Had someone been on hand to tap the ball home, then the rest of the match may have run to a different script, but it was not to be. Just 10 minutes later Stewart headed the ball well to Kenny Irons who picked his spot, and sent the ball just inside the post to register Town's third. With very little action for the remainder of the half, only a tame effort from Lee Bradbury reminded Huddersfield that we were still in the game, his shot going straight to keeper Nico Vaesen.

Two minutes into the second term Stewart became Town's fourth scorer when Rob Edwards went down the sideline and put in a good cross that Stewart converted with a good strike. Ten minutes later Beech had a double strike effort cleared by Jamie Smith off the line, the follow up hitting the post. Very shortly after Wijnhard made it 5 when he got on the end of a Chris Armstrong pass, beat Andy Linighan to the ball, and smashed the ball into the back of the net. Within four minutes Wijnhard had his hat-trick on the board with a spectacular overhead kick that disappeared into the top of the net, leaving Digby no chance whatsoever.

Palace could never be accused of not trying though. Certainly by now they would have had enough, and would be ready to go home and regroup for another day, but there was still 20+ minutes left on the clock. On a rare occasion that Palace managed to get the ball into the opposition area Linighan rose above the defence and headed home a fine effort. Huddersfield were not to be denied their 6 goal lead however, and just five minutes later Ben Thornley put through a good cross which Stewart managed to run on to. Rounding Digby, who came out to meet the ball, he simply placed it into an empty goal.

Still 16 minutes left on the clock, and Palace had "raised the white flag". That Town did not manage to score again must be to the credit of our remaining defence, though they did in fact come close to creating a third for Stewart, who was flagged for offside.

A poor showing in this match means that Steve Coppell will have a lot of work to do to bring the side up for the visit to Bramall Lane.

Colin Pryce

Huddersfield Town: Nico Vaesen, Jon Dyson, Ken Monkou (Rob Edwards 46), Chris Lucketti, Craig Armstrong, Simon Baldry, Scott Sellars (Ben Thornley 61), Marcus Stewart, Clyde Wijnhard, Kenny Irons (Barry Horne 66), Chris Beech.

Substitutes not used: Martyn Margetson, Wayne Allison.

Crystal Palace: Fraser Digby, Jamie Smith, Andrew Frampton, Dean Austin, Hayden Mullins (Andy Linighan 46), Fan Zhiyi (Matthias Svensson 61), Lee Bradbury, Clinton Morrison, Steve Thomson, Richard Harris (David Woozley 46), Simon Rodger.

Substitutes not used: Matthew Gregg, Nick Rizzo.

Attendance: 10,656

Referee: Mr G. Cain (Bootle).