Jon Worthington’s Huddersfield Town B Team win on the road against Bolton Wanderers
- Bolton Wanderers 0-1 Huddersfield Town B
- Connor Shanks scores only goal to seal win
- Good performance from Young Terriers away from home
Connor Shanks’ seventh-minute strike proved to be the match-winner as Huddersfield Town’s B Team beat Bolton Wanderers one nil at the Eddie Davies Football Academy.
Shanks took advantage of an error from the Trotters in the early stages before Town controlled the ball well and limited the home side to few chances throughout the game.
The early stages saw Town recycle possession well before pressing Bolton high up the field when off the ball – which helped create the opening goal on seven minutes.
Sonny Whittingham forced Sonny Ahmed to turn and attempt a severely under-hit back pass that saw Shanks latch onto it and place a shot past Luke Hutchinson.
The Trotters looked to respond instantly. They switched play to the right-hand side where Arran Pettifer slipped the ball down the line for Mitchell Henry; however, Luke Daley tracked the run and held off the forward to usher the pass out of play.
A similar move for the hosts happened on 20 minutes, this time from a free-kick as Pettifer spotted the late run of Matthew Tweedley, but Micah Obiero covered it and followed the ball out of play.
The Young Terriers countered from that chance with Sonny Whittingham, who magnificently juggled the ball forward before finding Shanks. The winger quickly returned the favour and played in Whittingham, who again used some fine skill to flick the ball over Ahmed, but Hutchinson raced off his line to hold it.
On the half-hour mark, Myles Bright almost sent Sam Peplow through on goal. But the wing-back was dispossessed by the well-timed tackle of Joel Burgess.
Moments later, an interchange of passes between Peplow and Ben Midgley almost saw the latter backheel the ball into the path of Shanks. But the ball was prised away from his toes by Noah Halford to clear the danger.
The second period began with two early chances for the visitors.
First, Peplow jinked his way through the centre of the field before he was hacked down by Ahmed. Peplow dusted himself down to take the free-kick, but his effort was pushed wide by Hutchinson.
Hutchinson was then called into action four minutes later, as he got down to hold from Charles Ondo’s drilled shot on the counterattack.
Wanderers’ first shot of the game came on the hour. Tweedley carried the ball through the middle before he rolled it into the path of Pettifer, who dragged the effort wide of Giosue Bellagambi’s far post.
Shanks should have had a second with 16 minutes left to play. Burgess’ poor pass out from the back was collected by Bright, who threaded the winger through on goal. Shanks opened up his body but attempted to slot the ball into the near corner and saw his shot hit the post and the chance went wide.
Moments later, Donay O’Brien-Brady should have doubled Town’s lead after latching onto Fope Deru’s through-ball, but his effort on the turn was sent wide by the feet of Hutchinson.
Town defended resolutely for the remaining minutes to see out the victory.
B Team Line-Up
Giosue Bellagambi; Nassim Kherbouche, David Adewoju, Charles Ondo; Sam Peplow (Fope Deru, 69’), Sonny Whittingham, Ben Midgley, Luke Daley (Donay O’Brien-Brady, 55’); Myles Bright, Micah Obiero (Kit Elliott, 80’), Connor Shanks
Unused Subs
Michael Roxburgh
Scorer
Connor Shanks (7’)
Final Score
Bolton Wanderers 0-1 Huddersfield Town B Team
