Points shared at the John Smith’s Stadium this evening.
- Huddersfield Town 2-2 Stoke City
- Goals from Matty Pearson and Jack Rudoni
- Points shared in Warnock’s last game as Manager
It ended all square at the John Smith’s Stadium this evening in Neil Warnock’s and Ronnie Jepson’s last game at Huddersfield Town, with a 2-2 draw against visiting Stoke City.
Town opened and closed the scoring this evening through Matty Pearson and Jack Rudoni, meaning that the points were shared at the John Smith’s Stadium for Neil Warnock’s final game as Manager of Huddersfield Town.
Our visitors had the first chance of the game in the fourth minute as Sead Hakšabanović slipped the ball to Daniel Johnson inside the box, however, his attempted cross to the far post was over hit due to his loss of balance.
It was then Town’s chance to get an early goal in the through Josh Koroma from a narrow angle inside the box, he aimed for the bottom corner, but Mark Travers had stretched and pushed the ball away from danger.
Stoke City’s Wouter Burger sent a good through ball to Tyrese Campbell inside the box but the forward’s run was made too early and though the ball found the back of the net, the flag was up for offside.
Great play between Ben Wiles and Rudoni following a throw in, which saw Rudoni fancy his chances from outside the box, but this went straight down the middle and was caught by comfortably by Stoke’s ‘keeper.
After this there was a slight pause in play as referee Darren Bond asked to be taken off due to an injury and became the fourth official for the game, meaning Tom Reeves had to step in and referee the remainder of the game – this contributed to the nine minutes of added time at the end of the first half.
Town’s first goal came in the 31st minute after David Kasumu was fouled in the attacking half. Sorba Thomas stepped over the set piece and sent a brilliant cross that went straight to the head of Pearson at the far post for him to open the scoreline.
However, our opposition got a goal back less than two minutes later through Johnson after Campbell's initial shot was saved by Lee Nicholls and fell to the former Preston man, who turned it home from close range.
Kian Harratt had a good chance to regain Town’s lead just before the end of normal time in the first half, he was sent the ball by Koroma and shot from outside the box, but this went wide of the goal as the forward aimed for the top corner.
At the other end, Stoke’s captain Josh Laurent made a great run and sent the ball into the box for Campbell to run onto, but his shot went wide from very close range as the game headed into the final minutes of extra time – so we went into the break all square.
Starting the second half strong, captain Michał Helik pushed forwards and played into the final third, sending the ball to Wiles via substitute Delano Burgzorg, however, he couldn’t wrap his foot around the ball fully and it went straight to Travers.
Jaheim Headley, also a second half substitute, skipped passed his man after a beautiful ball from Yuta Nakayama, however, he couldn’t convert from a narrow angle and hit the side netting with his shot.
The Potters scored their second of the evening in the 62nd minute from a Hakšabanović corner, Ben Wilmot got his head to it at the near post and flicked it back into the bottom far corner.
It wasn’t long before the score was level again as Town scored their equaliser in the 68th minute! The run up to the goal was kick-started by Koroma as he out-paced his man down the left and had his shot pushed out for a corner, which led to Rudoni having the ball at his feet just in front of goal as he spun around in the middle and fired the ball home with his left, from close range.
Town were awarded another corner in the final minutes of the second half, as the Town supporters created an immense atmosphere and got behind the lads. The corner came after Johnson got the end of his boot to the ball before Rudoni could strike inside the box.
The points were shared after great efforts from both teams this evening.
Town’s Team (4-3-3)
Lee Nicholls; Matty Pearson, Michał Helik (c), Yuta Nakayama, Josh Ruffels (Jaheim Headley, 46'); Ben Wiles, David Kasumu (Rarmani Edmonds-Green, 39'), Jack Rudoni; Sorba Thomas (Ben Jackson, 46'), Kian Harratt (Delano Burgzorg, 46'), Josh Koroma (Brahima Diarra, 89')
Unused Subs
Chris Maxwell, Pat Jones, Kyle Hudlin, Tom Lees
Goal Scorers
Matty Pearson (31'), Jack Rudoni (68')
Booking
Rarmani Edmonds-Green (81')
