Bury hold Huddersfield at Galpharm

HUDDERSFIELD Town failed to inspire on their new pitch at The Galpharm stadium as they played out a one all draw with newly promoted Bury.

The Terriers started the game looking a little disjointed as Bury carved through Town on several occasions in the early going with good opportunities going begging for Mark Cullen and Steven Schumacher.

The referee then came to Town’s aid as he waved away Bury’s claims for a penalty following a collision between Peter Clarke and Mark Cullen. I would like to see the replay but my instant opinion at the time is that it was a penalty and that Town were fortunate not to concede.

Bury then lost Cullen to a hamstring injury and he was followed off the pitch by Huddersfield’s new signing Anton Robinson who was also feeling his hamstring.

Tommy Miller replaced the injured Robinson and it was he who had Town’s first shot on target in first half stoppage time, and a rather tame effort it was too.

HALF TIME:- Huddersfield 0 – 0 Bury.

The sides came out for the second period unchanged but with the game following pretty much the same dismal pattern for The Terriers, Lee Clark threw on the hard working Lee Novak in place of the largely ineffectual Donal McDermott.

Novak’s willing running was starting to pay dividends for Town and it was Jordan Rhodes ball over the top of former Terrier Joe Skarz that saw Novak latch onto the ball and drive towards goal where he squared for Gary Roberts to smash the ball into the top of the net on 65 minutes.

Huddersfield 1 – 0 Bury.

Town had their best possession in the game in the following minutes but Bury were soon to roar back at The Terriers.

Peter Clarke was forced to clear off his own line on 75 minutes following good work by Lowe and Worral who rounded Bennett only to see Clarke clear to safety.

That was the warning shot for Town as Bury did find the back of the net two minutes later.

Ryan Lowe, who got 28 goals last season, opened his account in league one with a simple tap in at the near post following a long throw, he simply controlled the ball turned and slotted it past a static Huddersfield defence.

Town forced the Bury ‘keeper into one more save in the 89th minute as they pressed for a winner, Rhodes set up Calum Woods down the right and his low cross was deflected off the outstretched leg of defender Mark Hughes and was heading for the top corner but a brilliant one handed reaction save by ‘keeper Belford kept the scores level.

FULL TIME:- Huddersfield 1 – 1 Bury.

Player Ratings

Ian Bennett 6
Didn’t really have a great deal to do, other than pick the ball out of the net. A few commanding catches and gathered at the feet of Bury striker when he was clean through.

Calum Woods 5
A few wayward crosses but will mature into a good right back for the club in time. looked nervous at times

Gary Naysmith 6
Got forward well, too many backwards passes when Town were on the attack.

Peter Clarke 6
Played out of position on the left side of defence but was vocal as always and came up front towards the end to lead the charge for a winner

Antony Kay 6
Not convinced with Kay at centre back, too many occasions he waits for the ball to come to him rather than attack it. Back into midfield please

Oscar Gobern 5
A few good passes in the second half.

The less said about the first half performance the better.

Anton Robinson 6
Not really on the field long enough to judge. Hope the inury isn’t serious

Gary Roberts 7
Not his fluid best but scored a great goal and looked tricky on the wing.

Donal McDermott 6
Another player not running at his best, I’m sure there is much much more to come from him. Did have a few nice touches

Danny Ward 5
Seemed lost on the right wing, again another player that will have much more to offer as the season ages.

Jordan Rhodes 5
Struggled up front on his own, much better after Novak’s arrival, however never looked like scoring today

Tommy Miller 5
Average performance. One tame shot at end of first half.

Lee Novak 7
Great effort as always and came up with the assist for Roberts goal. Must be up for a starting position against Port Vale.

and the injuries and absentees
Lee Clark on htafc.com
We were poor today; all the aspects of our game were poor. The tempo we played at with and without the ball was slow, we didn’t press high enough up the field and force the Bury defenders into a mistake,’

‘Our passing was laboured; it was slow and didn’t allow us to create any opportunities. There is a lot of work to do following today’s game; I am very disappointed with the performance. We need to erase the errors from today and go again. In the second-half we huffed and puffed and then gave away a sloppy goal, which summed our day up really.

and on Novak
‘Lee Novak did well when he came on; he worked their defenders hard and put them under pressure. The system I tried in the first-half with the three players in behind Jordan Rhodes didn’t work, the passing wasn’t good enough and they didn’t see enough of the ball. Bury looked like a good side; you would have thought that Bury were the team that had just lost a Play-Off Final to go into the League abov

and the injuries and absentees
‘Anton (Robinson) has hurt his hamstring, he felt like he may have pulled it during a challenge so we got him off straight away. Hopefully we will have caught the problem but by the sounds of it, it doesn’t sound great.

‘Damien Johnson is a work in progress; he is fit and is currently building up to full match fitness. So far he has played three games and hopefully will play 90 minutes for the first time in a development game later this week. At the moment he has only played 45, 60 and 70 minutes so the next objective is to let him play a full game. He may be ready after that or he may need another game.

‘Alex (Smithies) is still having problems with his knee. He is going to have an operation on his knee in the next week with the surgeon who did his first operation to see if he can solve the problem. Alex needs to get his knee sorted; he has tried a lot recently to fix it with no avail. The Club has promised him that he will receive the best treatment possible to finally sort the issue. I don’t want to speculate how long Alex will be out for, I am not the specialist and I will leave his diagnosis down to the professionals.