Game Nineteen - Huddersfield away

4th October 2008

After the stupidly late arrival home from the last away trip, how best to start the haul to Huddersfield then hearing my alarm go off at 7am? Wonderful! Having only made it to bed 3 and a half hours before, it is fair to say I was not overly optimistic of the way this day would go. Tired, grumpy and with a sore head combined with the tight schedule of where I had to be at one time meant I was just waiting for something to go wrong. Which train would I miss? How many would we lose by? Which one of the people I was meeting would be late (most of them actually to be fair!)

So off I set for the 8:15 train from Syston to Leicester in order to get me onto the 8:49 to sheffield. And how to describe that journey? Cup of tea, croissant, newspaper, I-Pod and sleep... I bet the babysquad would love to snap me up for the Leicester Firm! I'm so hardcore that I worry myself sometimes!

Arrived in Sheffield and had to hang around for Carla (the first late person of the day) so that gave me a chance to see the station and it is quite an impressive welcome to the city. Water features and sculptures really do look impressive and the photo doesn't do it justice. Compare that to Leicester though where you have to run the gauntlet of "piss-alley" and Nottingham where you have 76 individual people trying to sell you the Big Issue before you've even found the road outside the station and it just helps create a great first impression.

When Carla finally arrived, we headed off to Starbucks for a drink and general catch up, comparing football teams, love lifes and the usual chatty things that old friends do. A pleasure as always and always helps set the tone for a great day! While at starbucks though, the texts started to fly in as plans got confusing.... people heading to different pubs in Huddersfield, people not sure where they were going and others who shall not be named (let's just call then Pelen and Polleen) had had issues with tickets and so wouldn't be meeting us at Huddersfield station. You leave people to sort themselves out and look what happens!! One thing that did go to plan though, was meeting Tash, Foz and Ben at Sheffield station for the trip into deeper Yorkshire.

What a train that rackety old thing was as we bounced back and forth on the line. I didn't realise you could even get dodgy machines like that nowadays! It was a fun journey though with many memorable stops such as Penistone (childish but it has to be done) and just general picking on Tash for kicks. Has to be done!

Got into Huddersfield at about ten to two and headed for the stadium (the wrong way). Ended up following one guy who we overheard asking a policeman for directions..... "Follow this road, turn left and follow the road down the hill." Easy.... well it was for most people except this lad who took a right turn instead of left. Seriously?!?!

Finally got to the stadium and met up with the old man to pick up the Foxestalk flag and then had to wait for Lil Dave at the turnstile to give him his ticket. Was expecting him to along in five minutes but ended up waiting for half an hour (cheers Ched!) and so concluding the third late person of the day. Did get to wait with Bert and Chloe though and got a Dexter hug so "yes then." Old school away days!

Helen and Colleen finally made it too and went in ahead of us and with about 20 mins to kick off, they finally showed and we could get in and see what this stadium was all about. The one review i'd heard from Chloe was that it was "Well fit" so clearly I was expecting big things!

Not bad eh? The above three pictures were taken from my original position at the back of the stand but this view was not to last as the FT lot were quickly brought into a game of musical chairs which the stewards won. I really can't see any issue with having 5 people in 2 seats! Or the 10 or so crammed into 6 seats on the row behind. Pah! My attempts to con them into pretending I'd lost my ticket with my seat number on didn't fool them for long so I was soon ousted to my proper seat next to Helen and her mum..... in fact..... this saw us about 10 minutes into the game and I hadn't even realised we were fully underway! That's entertainment folks!

The rest of the first half passed without major incident - few chances for us and Fryatt missed a great chance but that was about your lot.
At half time, I headed back into the concourse and found the sheffield lot and had a rather amusing discussion on the use of "m'duck" in leicester. I think you had to be there really!

The second half though .... woah! It got off to a flying start when Nicky Adams set up Matty Fryatt to pass the ball past the advancing keeper to give us the lead. Give that boy a biscuit - we're top of the league!

Fryatt's goal really raised the tempo and Dyer was unleashed down the left (Go On Lloyd!) and saw his cross handled to give Fryatt the chance to double the lead.... I'll let the picture do the talking.
So 2-0 to the good and cruising. I could sense my cousins other half cursing us as he watched on from the huddersfield end. As a Leeds fan, this was the one time he'd ever be seen supporting the yorkshire rivals! Suddenly though, for the first time on an away trip... things started going against us and while we were busy goading the home support, they pulled one back through a deflected effort.... but that was only a minor blip wasn't it? 2-1 up still and the three points were secure.... erm..... no! A high looping ball, and awful positioning from David Martin left the Huddersfield striker with an easy chance to head home for the equaliser. Damn! This really shut the travelling support up and left us anxiously watching the clock counting down the seconds. From comfortable to hanging on in the space of ten minutes. Injury time was signalled and we all started to think we might escape with a point when up stepped the man of the moment. That man again, Lloyd Dyer to completely mis-hit a shot that looped high up and over the keeper into the net. There was that stunned silence before the place errupted and hugs, high fives and general jumping on people ensued. How had we pulled this one off? 3-2 up with seconds to go and boy didn't Lloyd like it? I don't normally use other photos but found this one on a football website and watch that whippet run. No ones even close to catching him as he taunts the home fans. Legend!
I was even tempted to risk the jinx of taking a pic of the score board as the ref looked to end the match. Beautiful!
Also couldn't resist the picture below taken for Andy - the Leeds fan in the home end.
After leaving the stadium, I said my goodbyes and made my way to meet my old man, uncle and Andy. Leicester, Man Utd and Leeds fans respectively before heading off to Richard's for a bite to eat and a chance to see the family. Happy days.

So that was the 5th away win on the bounce and leaves us top of the pack with a week off for the international break. What a way to win it too....and left us with all the old cliches - a real game of two halfs that left the home fans as sick as parrots. Credit to Huddersfield though - they put up a real fight when they went two down and turned it into a truly great game and helped round off a memorable away day. Next up will be probably our toughest game of the season so far - away to promotion rivals Oldham.... and I simply can't wait. Go on Lloyd!