Young Terriers came from behind to draw at Brentford B in friendly
- Brentford B 2-2 Huddersfield Town B
- Town scored two in second half to drawl level
- Goals from David Adewoju and Tom Iorpenda
Huddersfield Town’s B Team fought back to draw away with Brentford on Tuesday 18 April thanks to two second half goals from David Adewoju and Tom Iorpenda.
Facing a strong Brentford side, our youngsters found themselves behind by two goals at half time, but a goal from David Adewoju in the 78th minute got the Terriers back in the game. Town the levelled in extraordinary circumstances as Tom Iorpenda converted from an audacious free-kick taken from inside his own half!
The latest highlight in an excellent season for the now 18-year-old Iorpenda, we caught up with the young midfielder to get his insight into a game that saw him assist the first goal and score the second:
“I thought the game was very hard, especially in the first half. They were a really good side with very good players, not only that but we also had to play against the wind in the first half as well which made everything a lot more difficult.
“They were really good at pressing us and making it hard to play out, and even if we tried to go on a run the wind would pretty much just send the ball back – so the first half was very tough.
“Then, the second half had the wind on our side, which made it easier and meant we could play our football the way we’re used to playing and it put them on the backfoot. We scored two goals towards the end of the second half and came back from being 2-0 down, so that was good.”
Starting for Brentford were some very experienced First team players, who had played in the Premier League this season for the Bees such as familiar face Mathias ‘Zanka’ Jorgensen, Frank Onyeka and Vitaly Janelt.
Our young midfielder spoke about the positives of playing against a side with some experience and the learning opportunities it provides:
“Playing against players who have Premier League experience is good because you find out the level that you’re at and you see what your ability is like compared to them.
“You could tell that they were experienced players yesterday, they were a lot more mature and physical. Their leadership showed that they had played in a First Team environment for a long time.”
Adewoju scored the first goal for Town after Iorpenda chipped the ball back into the box following a corner ball, which allowed the defender to head it in at the back post.
“David’s goal was a great header. It came in from a corner and then got headed back out to the edge of the box and I managed to chip it back in to the back post and David was there waiting; it was a nice header.”
We finally got to the main talking point of the game, Tom’s goal from a free kick in his own half in the 87th minute:
The 18-year-old discussed his thoughts behind the goal:
“I looked up and saw that the Brentford ‘keeper was off his line and Brodie (Spencer) was standing over the ball, so the goalkeeper wasn’t really expecting anything to come to him.
“So, I said, ‘Brodie get out of the way, I’m going to shoot’ and he looked at me like I was crazy!
“Then he moved out of the way, and I hit it as far as I could as hard as I could with a little help from the wind behind us – it managed to catch out the ‘keeper so it worked.”
Thanks to these goals, our Young Terriers were able to pull back level and secure a draw in their behind-closed-doors friendly against the Bees at Brentford’s Training Ground on Tuesday 18 April.
To follow the progress of the Huddersfield Town Academy, including both our U19 and B Team side, follow us on social media!
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