Leeds scored in the opening and the closing minutes to grind out a hard-fought victory from today’s game at Huddersfield Town.

Earlier in the week I had wondered if this game was going to go ahead, but despite the freezing cold weather the pitch seemed to be in excellent condition. What was more predictable was that we would be greeted by chavs corner at the end of the stand to our right, the usual bunch of Huddersfield fans who were far more concerned with waving at us and gesturing than they were with watching the game.

There was just one change from the eleven which began the last match against Bournemouth, with Sol Bamba coming in for the suspended Bellusci. He looked OK, though his passing out of defence could be better, and despite his presence we continued to look shaky at set pieces. There were a couple of half hearted ‘La Bamba’ songs from the away end, but we urgently need someone to write some lyrics to the rest of the tune.

Leeds made an excellent start to the game, and in the first few minutes Joe Murphy had to beat away a swerving shot from our Luke Murphy. But that was only a temporary let-off for the dog-botherers, and a few minutes later Murphy sent Byram through on goal with an excellent through ball, and Byram flicked it over the keeper as he rushed off his line.

Leeds continued to dominate for the next 20 minutes, with the hosts restricted to a couple of long range shots, but Huddersfield found a way back into the game in the 26th minute. Silvestri came off his line for a corner but got nowhere near it, and was stranded when Bunn completed the simple task of heading past him into the net.

The equaliser lifted the Terriers and they had much the better of the game for the rest of the first half. Silvestri redeemed himself with a fine save from Vaughan and then Scannell did well to stay on his feet despite Cooper’s efforts to bring him down, before turning and shooting across the face of goal and just beyond the far post.

At around this time Austin was shown a yellow card for a late challenge on Lynch and referee Chris Foy infuriated the home crowd by booking Lynch as well for his reaction. The second half began much as the first had finished, with Huddersfield enjoying more of the possession in game that was getting rather scrappy. Lynch sent a powerful header just over from one corner and another produced a goalmouth scramble, but we hung on.

Then the Huddersfield fans were baying for Austin to get a second yellow card for a foul that didn’t deserve one, but Chris Foy thought that a final warning was sufficient. From then on Austin had to dodge every 50/50 challenge for fear of picking up a red, and the bloke behind me suggested he should be substituted before he got sent off.

That would have been a good idea, but when the first substitution came it saw Antenucci coming on for Mowatt, which didn’t seem to make sense unless Mowatt had picked up an injury I hadn’t spotted. At first the Italian irritated everyone around me by strolling around instead of getting involved, but he finally showed a bit of life when he claimed a penalty after colliding with the Huddersfield keeper and then got into a row with several defenders.

The second substitution saw Billy Sharp come on for the injured Lewis Cook, and finally our extra numbers up front told, as we started to look the more likely winners as the game moved into the final few minutes. Antenucci blazed a shot well over from a good position after an excellent three man move had set him up for the chance, but we finally grabbed the winner right on 90 minutes.

Byram played Antenucci in on the right, and the Italian sent a good cross to the far post for Sharp to bravely stoop to head home. In the process Tommy Smith picked up a serious injury and lay on the ground for some time, before being airlifted to hospital after the game. We wish him well. While Smith was being treated the Huddersfield fans in the corner were getting a bit upset by our celebrations, and one large chap needed four coppers to subdue him before they could cart him off.

Eventually they all calmed down and when the game could resume there were still four minutes injury time to play, but we managed to see out time to record another victory over our nearest rivals in this division. The result took our unbeaten run to four games, against the same four teams we played in Redfearn’s first spell in charge.

Quite bizarrely some of the Huddersfield fans were making ‘going down’ signs at us on the way out despite a result that makes our position look a lot more secure. Millwall also won today, but we went above Brighton who seem to be dropping into trouble in our place. If we can carry on playing as we have in recent weeks we should be quite safe by the end of the season.

Photo: Action Images

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