Terriers bite back at Owls

Jordan Rhodes grabbed all the headlines not only with a last gasp equaliser but with all four of Huddersfield Town’s goals today!

Ironically Rhodes Father is the goalkeeping coach at Sheffield Wednesday, so the chat in the Rhodes household should be interesting this evening!

Town stormed into a two goal lead inside the opening quarter of an hour in what was a dominant display. There were warning signs for Wednesday as Rhodes narrowly headed wide twice before he opened the scoring on 12 minutes and then doubled the lead on 16 minutes with an almost identical goal from another Gary Roberts cross.

Huddersfield were looking great value for the lead and it was perhaps a question of how many goals Town may score at that point. However Town then had a mad few minutes and conceded the lead and came under intense pressure.

Goals from Rob Jones (26) and Reda Johnson (28) rocked Town and everyone was satisfied with a 2-2 half time score after Wednesday looked dangerous.

Ryan Lowe appeared for the 2nd half for Wednesday and he certainly caused the Town backline more problems than Sanchez Watt who was easily tamed.

Lowe was perhaps unlucky not to have grabbed a goal himself in the game but some great saves from Bennett had preserved the scoreline and Bennett would prove key after Town conceded another two goals to Ben Marshall (63) and Chris O’Grady (74) it looked like the day would end with no points and with Wednesday looking dangerous Bennett made a few crucial saves namely from Lowe to keep the score at just 4-2.

However despite looking dejected and out of the game Huddersfield rallied around and Jordan Rhodes gave Terrier supporters a glimmer of hope when he pulled one back on 77 minutes.

As the game drew to a close and we had seen Jon Parkin come on as Town went direct route one for the final 10 minutes it looked as though the luck was not going to go Town’s way. The referee Darren Deadman had signalled 5 minutes of injury time and we were well into that as Jordan Rhodes sent the travelling fans into raptures as he equalised with the last kick of the game – literally.

The game was not short of incident with a lot of bookings for both sides and some full blooded challenges – on reflection before the game I would have taken a draw and with the way it all panned out im delighted with that.

We need to improve our defence though if we seriously have ambitions of getting into the top 2.

Player Ratings

Ian Bennett
Some great saves throughout although a complete passenger for the opening 22 minutes as Town dominated

Jack Hunt
Amazing he was able to play after last weeks injury – took a heavy knock early on but recovered

Gary Naysmith
Looked experienced and had a decent game

Peter Clarke
Set up the last gasp equaliser – also booked his 5th of the season and will miss Boxing Day game

Alex Bruce
Picked up a booking for a handball where he was lucky to be goalside or it could have been worse.

Tommy Miller
Looked composed on the ball when Town were on top of the game

Oscar Gobern
Nice to see him back from injury – had a decent game

Danny Ward
Great play in the opening section of the game but drifted out of the game and replaced by McDermott just after half time

Gary Roberts
Set up two of Rhodes Goals almost identically – super start from Town – contract extension please

Lee Novak
Perhaps not his usual self – worked hard for the team and ran a lot but not a lot of luck in front of goal today

Jordan Rhodes 10
Would we have won the play-offs if he had played? Rhodes is now on 19 goals for the season

Donal McDermott
Did well in his first appearance for a while, may get a start next week

Jon Parkin
The big man came on as Town bombarded the Owls – with Alan Lee back next week he may have to get used to the bench.