Huddersfield Town were knocked out of the Emirates FA Cup following a 3-2 defeat to Plymouth Argyle at the John Smith’s Stadium.
Romoney Crichlow and Aaron Rowe both scored their first Town goals to put the Terriers ahead twice in the first half, but the visitors responded on both occasions through Ryan Hardie and Panutche Camará to ensure the teams went in level at the break.
In the second half, it was Joe Edwards who got the all-important goal to bring an end to Town’s 2020/21 campaign in the competition in the third round.
As alluded to in his pre-match press conference the day before, Head Coach Carlos Corberán rested the 11 players who had started the last five games over a 17-day festive period.
It meant a much-changed line-up for the visit of the Green Army with 19-year-old centre back Mustapha Olagunju and 17-year-old winger Pat Jones handed senior debuts by the Spaniard.
The Terriers nearly made the perfect start to the tie and would have been ahead inside three minutes if not for a superb stop from Plymouth ‘keeper Michael Cooper.
He clawed away Kieran Phillips’ goal-bound effort after the young forward, making his first senior start, was well found by a low cutback from Pat Jones on the break.
From the resulting corner, Town did take the lead. The inswinging ball from the left from Jones was met at the near post by Romoney Crichlow who glanced it into the bottom corner to put the Terriers ahead with his first goal for the Club.
Shortly after, Phillips was involved again, showing his strength on the right side of the box before pulling the ball back to Matty Daly who had his effort blocked.
At the other end, Will Aimson went close for the visitors, flicking a corner over the bar just before they did get level.
Ryan Hardie got through one-on-one and slotted the ball past Ben Hamer at the near post to make it 1-1 on 24 minutes.
Town looked to respond instantly and twice went close through Jaden Brown. The young full-back’s free-kick from range drifted just wide before his curling left-footed strike was deflected away from the target moments later.
The Terriers did restore the lead just after the half-hour mark through Aaron Rowe. The 20-year-old powered an amazing effort into the far top corner after cutting in from the right to put Town back ahead!
In what was continuing to be an end-to-end contest, the visitors levelled the game back up just before the break.
Panutche Camará latched on to a ball into the box from the left to take the game into the break at 2-2.
After the interval, Ben Hamer was called into action. The Town skipper for the evening pushed Hardie’s close-range effort on to the woodwork as the visitor looked to go in-front.
With just over 20 minutes left to play, the Green Army did take the lead for the first time in the game.
Danny Mayor carried the ball along the byline before squaring to Joe Edwards to tap into an empty net.
As Town looked to get back on level terms, there were debuts for Rolando Aarons, Myles Bright and Etienne Camara from the bench.
But the visiting side held firm in the closing stages to see out the victory and knock Town out of the Emirates FA Cup at the third-round stage.
Next up for Town is a return to Sky Bet Championship action and a trip to Vicarage Road to face Watford on Saturday 16 January 2020; 3pm kick-off.
HUDDERSFIELD TOWN (4-3-3)
Ben Hamer (c); Jaden Brown (Ben Jackson, 76’), Romoney Crichlow, Mustapha Olagunju (Brahima Diarra, 76’), Demeaco Duhaney; Álex Vallejo; Josh Austerfield (Myles Bright, 83’), Matty Daly (Etienne Camara, 83’); Pat Jones (Rolando Aarons, 71’), Kieran Phillips, Aaron Rowe
Unused subs
Ryan Schofield; Loick Ayina, Sam Sharrock-Peplow, Kit Elliott
PLYMOUTH ARGYLE (3-1-4-2)
Michael Cooper; Kelland Watts, Jerome Opoku, Will Aimson; Tyrese Fornah (Byron Moore, 85’); Conor Grant (Scott Wootton, 85’), Danny Mayor, Panutche Camará, Joe Edwards; Ryan Hardie (Frank Nouble, 77’), Luke Jephcott (Dom Telford, 81’)
Unused subs
Jack Ruddy; Niall Canavan, Ben Reeves, Luke McCormick
REFEREE
Martin Coy
