Saturday 24 March 2012

Huddersfield 1- Charlton Athletic 0.

I'm writing this as we speed away from the centre of Huddersfield.

The score above only tells half the story.

I quite like Huddersfield.
Once the fog finally lifted it became clear that it's a pleasant, large smallish town- (or a small large town), with a magnificent stadium and friendly locals. There wasn't even a hint of the menace that sometimes surrounds football.

The countryside whizzing past me now is lovely.

Unfortunately, my memories of today are all about how we were undone by one man.

Before kick off I was expecting this to happen.
I thought Jordan Rhodes might give us a bit of a mauling but actually he had a fairly quiet game.

Yes, he did score but it was a penalty that rolled into the goal with Hamer sent in the other direction. Other than that, he didn't really do much.

Unfortunately, the 'one man' who stitched us up today was wearing black.

I'd be interested to see if any neutrals thought he was being impartial, as his role demands.
He was Huddersfield's best player for most of the afternoon.

Having witnesses his display today it reminded me of one of those games that have since been found to have been officiated by 'bought' referees.
Yes.
It was that bad.

He penalised good challenges, missed clear cut fouls due to ball watching, managed to restart the game with a drop ball when most of us were expecting a dismissal, or maybe a yellow if he remembered where he was.
He managed to mishandle pretty much every event he could and in summary, made it highly improbable that Charlton were going to get anything from the game.

Huddersfield are a decent side.
They weren't that good today but they were good enough to shade the first half.

Despite going down to 10 men, Charlton 'won' the second half, though didn't manage to carve out the clear cut chance the dominance merited.

So, it needed a penalty, that looked to be a bit soft to say the least (but definitely falls into the "I've seen them given" file) to beat our ten men against their 12.

Maybe I'll feel differently in the morning but right now I'm just angry with an incompetent official, and pleased with the fight our team showed, especially after the red card.

Promotion is still on.

Don't panic!

ps.
I feel I need to point out Norm's language was impeccable this afternoon.


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am a Huddersfield fan and im likely to get a lot of abuse for my contribution. However, i think in the 1st half, Kay should have been booked, which would have resolved the 2nd half issue you probably wouldn't have had a man sent off. I thought our defence was strong and we had more chances, so, on balance 1-0 was fair. Biased, perhaps, but good away support and hope we meet each other next year 1 league higher up the ladder

Marco. said...

No abuse from me.
Thanks for popping by & good luck for the rest of the season.
I'd rather you made it up than Wednesday who have made few friends this season.

My ideal scenario would be us & Sheff United going up, then you winning the Play Offs by stuffing Wednesday!


ps. Did you all club together for the ref or is there a Mr Big who looks after these things?
;-)

Anonymous said...

I'm not a Town fan and I don't support Charlton so I'm the neutral you asked about.
I am used to watching my football on television but normally see two or three live games every year.
I chose the game to see yesterday as I've never been to a league one game before and I thought both teams might play attractive football being near the top.
There wasn't much quality from either side. The ball went up in the air again and again. Is this normal?
The penalty looked to be a good call to me.
The Charlton goalkeeper came a long way out of his area to argue with the referee in the first half and after that he seemed to have it in for the visitors.
People near me were laughing at how the home side were getting all the decisions and how angry it was making the Charlton players and supporters.
As the players got more and more annoyed the referee seemed to be revelling in it.
Just my opinion but the player who clobbered yours- sorry don't know name, should have been sent off for the horrible tackle that you described being punished with a drop ball. I couldn't believe it.
Town had maybe 3 or 4 chances on goal but I don't remember Charlton having more than a couple.
As the game went on the Charlton team got stronger and people near me were sure they were going to equalise. The home supporters seemed very relieved at the end.
I really don't think the officials were up to much yesterday and they certainly didn't give Charlton the rub of the green.
If I was a Charlton supporter I think I'd feel quite annoyed too. You weren't the best side yesterday which I don't think you were saying. I think a draw would have been fair.

Anonymous said...

The referee was from Yorkshire, which probably says it all. I think Charlton should put in a complaint about that...or maybe it's normal??

Anonymous said...

I'm just hoping we get some good fortune from referees soon.
We cannot blame the referee yesterday for the mistakes made by others but when i look back at yesterdays penalty, probably the right decision, and then remember the assault on bwp that was waved away v notts county it does seem that the officials are cocking it up against us quite a lot.
perhaps the huddersfield lot deserved to win yesterday?
We won't really know though as the LOCAL referee has made it impossible for us to tell if we were fairly beaten.

Anonymous said...

this is laughable.
you lost because you didn't score.
we did.
we had the same referee as you so if he was so terrible then he he would have made mistakes against us as well.
your just sore losers

Marco. said...

Sometimes it's better to keep quiet instead of opening your mouth and letting everyone know what a plum you are.

Anonymous said...

The ref was an old school ref, perfectly happy with two footed challenges and players slamming into each other. How else do you explain the drop kick for the “tackle” on Wagstaff? Huddersfield fans have to understand that their cloggers will struggle in a higher division, we lost but, you were lucky accept it and move on.