Newsletter #265

Hopefully this issue will reach you by Monday evening / Tuesday morning! Yet again my telephone line is acting up, such that I’d given up, but decided to make one last effort at 10:30pm. Lo and behold I managed to download 22 messages, all of which needed processing and, as it was, I was knackered! Now I just have to hope it hasn’t all been in vain and I will actually be able to upload this issue.

There’s plenty to read; two match reports of Saturday’s game, which mean we have now established a record of two games unbeaten – on the trot; plenty of opinion; more on the Prestwich and Whitefield Supporters’ Club and news of the Pink Final on the Internet.

This one reachs 1,264.

Please be patient if you can’t reach me over the next few days, I’ll be having a friendly word with British Telecom!

MATCH REPORT ‘LIVE’

HUDDERSFIELD TOWN vs. MANCHESTER CITY, Saturday 18th January 1997

Attendance: about 18,000

This is all written from memory – forgive me any mistakes!

The match day started well enough with a decent pub lunch and a pint in the Parish Pump pub almost within sight of the ground. The atmosphere was good with a mix of both sets of supporters, the noisier of which were the City fans, one of whom was singing with a plastic bag on his head! It seemed a pretty stupid thing to do which it turns out was not his last of the day. The word in the pub was that it was a sell-out, so there were hopes that the atmosphere would be good in the ground too. After lunch we made our way to the ground and were seated on the third row – being the optimist I figured that this would give us an excellent chance to see City put a few in. As it turned out both goals were scored at the other end. As rumoured, it was virtually full and the City end was by far the more vocal and in good song from the start, with plenty of renditions of Blue Moon, Remember Ten, and a catchy welcome for Tommy Wright Wright Wright.

The line up seemed to be:-

            Wright
McGoldrick  Lomas       Symons     Ingram
Summerbee   Brightwell  Crooks     Heaney
            Kinkladze
            Rösler

Subs: Whitley, Creaney, Kavelashvili

To begin with City looked like a side that had never met each other before, let alone played football together but gradually got a few things together. Huddersfield seemed to be making a few more chances and were regularly causing problems for our defence with some simple through balls, though for the remainder of the first half it was anybody’s game. Eventually one of our attacks resulted in a free kick that had Kinky written all over it but Buzzer wasted it by blasting it low into the wall. City were getting more confident and even passing it around a bit towards the end of the first half. Eventually another City free kick just before half time resulted in the City goal, after being recovered by Rösler who put the ball back in the box for Lomas to finish.

After half time City had a good spell and looked comfortable passing the ball around and looked pretty much in control for a good 10 minutes! But this soon deteriorated and after about sixty minutes Huddersfield were coming back into it and they scored from a corner after about 70-75 minutes. From then it was the by now usual City nail biting ending with a few scrambles and most of the play coming from the opposition. There was a bit of a scuffle in the stands mid-way through the second half with a few City fans that had managed to get tickets in amongst the Huddersfield supporters. At this point our hero, who was singing with the bag on his head earlier, promptly jumped over the barrier into the arms of a waiting copper who obligingly cuffed him and escorted him away – clever bloke. At least he gave us something to laugh about!

Players summary:- Tommy Wright had a pretty good début, McGoldrick was eager throughout, Lomas seemed to drift in and out of the game a little, Symons was solid, Buzzer was crap except for a run right at the end – the brightest thing about his game was the orange flash on his boots – he even got booked unnecessarily for tapping the ball in after being flagged offside. Kinky was trying to impress too much and would have had several half chances had he not had a dozen too many touches trying to tee it up for his left. Rösler was repeatedly caught offside (though some of these decisions looked very close – but the vantage point I had was not the best for spotting offsides) and when he wasn’t too far ahead of the ball he really seemed half a yard behind the game. Whitley came on for Crooks after 80 minutes and looked keen, to the extent that he put in a few rash challenges. To top it all off the referee was a complete knob – goading the City fans with a thumbs up after he gave a decision the other way – not in the refereeing handbook I suspect. Players can be disciplined for this sort of thing – what about refs?

All in all, I was happy that we managed to come away with a draw.

MATCH REPORT ‘LIVE’

HUDDERSFIELD TOWN vs. MANCHESTER CITY, Saturday 18th January 1997

“Where were you when we scored ten?”

Huddersfield’s two-year-old Alfred McAlpine Stadium may only be a couple of hundred yards away from the site of the old Leeds Road ground but as a sports venue, it might as well be from another planet. The sweeping curves of the three stands (work on the fourth side has now started) give it a distinctive appearance and offer excellent views of the pitch. Well worth a visit for anyone who hasn’t yet been. City sold out the end reserved for away fans (4,000 seats); part of the stand to our left was also set aside for City fans, who could pay on the day in this section. What’s the point of telling people not to travel without tickets if clubs persistently have cash turnstiles available like this? Needless to say, the attendance of 18,358 was the highest of the season so far, by a margin of around 4,000.

Tommy Wright made his d