Match report

Let's get the facts out of the way first. A gate of 10,304 with very close on 500 travelling Swans fans.

Heavy rain before the game, but the pitch which had a rugby game on it the night before was in good condition. Would we have been able to say that if it had been later in the season?

And before we go any further let's note now that we expected a defeat from what we saw to be one of the toughest away games.

OK that's the disclaimer out of the way.

The first 10 mins was a very open entertaining start to the game which saw Huddersfield come closest to scoring when following a bouncing ball in the area a shot was deflected onto the post off Forbes standing on the goal line. As the game progressed Huddersfield began to shade things and mounted more pressure without threatening our goal. The problem was that we weren't clearing our lines allowing them to come back at us. The inevitable happened when again from a bad attempted clearance Gueret managed to parry a close attempt on goal only for Booth to react quicker than Izzy to plant a header into the net. To be fair to the team they responded well and took the game to Huddersfield and it wasn't long before we drew level. O'Leary played a long cross field ball from the centre spot towards the right hand corner, where Tate beat a defender and passed inside to Trundle who cut across the area looking for a shot on goal.

Looking as if he had gone to wide, he was brought down for a penalty. Unlike against Tranmere he put more power into his shot making the score 1-1. The game became more competitive in midfield where Huddersfield were again gaining the upper hand but with our defence holding firm although their wing play was causing us problems. In a move very similar to their first goal Huddersfield got their second when a shot from inside the area seemed to be covered by Gueret got a deflection off Britton and into the net. Britton had replaced Forbes midway through the half, Forbes having received a leg injury.

Half Time saw the score at 2-1 which Huddersfield just about deserved.

More comment to come but there were bookings for Trundle and Akinfenwa Tate and Austin. Tate can count himself lucky as his challenge was on the edge of the area as last man.

Goodfellow was replaced by Anderson

The second half can only be described as unbelievable. What had been a fairly well contested open game of football seemed to turn into a battle in the referee's eyes. Even with obvious biased eyes decision after decision seemed to go against us. At this point we thought that we wouldn't get anything from the game. It came to a head when O'Leary was sent off for either a clash of heads or an elbow. Didn't get a clear view. The ref did and didn't hesitate with a straight red, taking the card out before actually getting to the incident. That's all we can say is O'Leary is not that type of player. The look of disbelief on his face said it all. From this point the game degenerated and with a man up Huddersfield played the ball around without any real threat on our goal as we now defended with backs to the wall.

As strange as it seemed we nearly drew level when Trundle from without the right hand side of the area in line with the six yard box aimed a curling shot towards the bottom left hand corner. The ball going just wide with Britton and Akinfenwa closing in. That was our last attempt at staying in the game. Although with their man advantage it didn't look as if Huddersfield were going to add to their score until a shot from outside the area took a deflection, and with Gueret heading for one corner the ball ended in the other. Tudur-Jones replaced Martinez to add fresh legs. He had only been on a few minutes when he went to ground after a debatable challenge. While he was on the floor a foul was given to Huddersfield in midfield. Izzy went straight to the ref to complain. This lasted a little bit too long as it looked as if the ref was letting him get away with it, until Izzy turned for a second go and must have said something 'out of turn' as the ref reacted with a another red card. Few more minutes of nothing football until the final whistle.


Final Comments.

The ref was abysmal, and turned what could have been an entertaining game into a farce. Don't take this as sour grapes in defeat as Huddersfield were a better side than us. They didn't play football as Tranmere did last week but were seconds faster than us in reacting.

With all his faults the referee can't be blamed for sending Izzy off for what he 'might have said' but can be blamed for the culmination of frustration that made Izzy react.