A point for Town after Radulovic goal gave us the lead.
- Stoke City 1-1 Huddersfield Town
- Bojan Radulovic scores his first Town goal
- Stoke equalise to ensure a share of the spoils
A first Huddersfield Town goal for January signing Bojan Radulovic turned out to only be good enough for a point at Stoke City, with the hosts equalising in the second half.
Town grew into the first half and took the lead right on the stroke of half time through a nicely take goal from the Spanish-born striker, only for Stoke to equalise early in the second 45.
The home side enjoyed a good spell thereafter, but André Breitenreiter will have been disappointed to see his side spurn one late chance after finishing strongly.
Breitenreiter made four changes for the game, keeping with the 4-2-3-1 they finished with against Coventry on Friday. Pat Jones was handed his first Championship start and Radulovic also made his first start under the German Head Coach, where they were joined in the team by the returning Sorba Thomas and Brodie Spencer.
Stoke came out of the blocks with real intent and put the Terriers under real territorial pressure in the opening 10 minutes. Town had to defend their box well and did so to protect Lee Nicholls from real action.
After that, it looked like we had scored with our first real opportunity – only for the assistant’s flag to rule it out. A dangerous Thomas free kick delivered into the penalty area had to be nodded behind and from Sorba’s resulting corner, Matty Pearson powered a header home. However, the assistant’s flag eventually went up against Jones, who was ruled offside as he obscured the goalkeeper’s view.
Town, however, tried to keep hold of the momentum and enjoyed more of the ball thereafter. Our next real effort came in the 22nd minute when Helik clipped a ball forward for Thomas and he quickly pushed the ball into the path of Radulovic. Bojan got to the edge of the box before side-stepping a defender and letting fly on his right foot, but another Stoke man got a good block on the ball.
Jones tried his luck with a speculative shot on the right side of Stoke’s penalty area after decent work from Spencer and Rudoni.
Town continued to improve. Thomas soon outmuscled right back However to advance to the dead ball line on the left and intelligently pulled the ball back towards Rudoni, but Jack’s first-time effort at the near post was blocked by a centre back.
Stoke’s best effort of the half was a 38th minute set piece. Matos brought down Junho, allowing Lewis Baker to try his luck from over 25 yards out; he was unlucky to see his effort cannon off the crossbar before eventually bouncing behind.
Town, undeterred, continued and opened the scoring right on the brink of half time. Nicholls’ initial long clearance forward had eventually dropped to Rudoni, who stung the palms of the goalkeeper from range before Stoke cleared the rebound. The throw-in soon found Jack; he pushed a pass across the face of the Stoke penalty area, which Kasumu dummied into the path of Jaheim Headley. Jaheim looked up and threaded a pass into Bojan’s feet in the area, where the big striker side-stepped the final defender before placing his shot past Iversen’s left side and into the top corner!
Town started the second half brightly, only for Stoke to hit back with a 50th minute equaliser. Right back Ki-Jana However was allowed to come infield too easily by the defenders, but still had a lot to do and bent the ball right into the top corner of Nicholls’ goal with his left foot.
Rhys Healey and Delano Burgzorg were introduced around the hour and the former was soon knocked over by McNally, giving Town a free kick dead centre of goal and around 25 yards out. Up stepped Rudoni, but he couldn’t generate enough curl on his shot to bend the ball inside the post.
At the other end, we then needed Lee Nicholls to produce a big save from midfielder Wouter Burger, who had charged powerfully into the penalty area. Lee stayed big and got his angles right, blocking the eventual shot with his body.
The resulting corner was nodded towards goal and after Nicholls pushed the close-range header into the air, Rudoni had to get back on our line to head clear Luke McNally’s follow-up.
Stoke were in the ascendancy at this point, and Nicholls soon had to save again from Hoever before Helik blocked a shot from Stoke sub Manhoef well.
Town came again in the final 10 minutes in search of the win, with Burgzorg involved in two big moments.
The first saw him neatly turn to face goalwards after receiving a firm pass into the penalty area from Thomas, but McNally did well to get across and bravely block Della’s resulting shot with his body.
The second moment was our biggest chance of the half, and we could have done better. Defender Enda Stevens slipped under pressure from Burgzorg, which allowed the Mainz loanee to pick up the ball in the right edge of the Stoke area. From a very narrow angle, Delano chose to shoot rather than try and find Healey in the middle, and the goalkeeper made the save at his near post.
Despite winning a flurry of late corners, Town couldn’t find the winning goal.
Town’s team (4-2-3-1)
Lee Nicholls; Brodie Spencer, Matty Pearson, Michał Helik (c), Jaheim Headley (Ben Jackson, 73’); David Kasumu, Alex Matos; Pat Jones (Delano Burgzorg, 58’), Jack Rudoni (Ben Wiles, 73’), Sorba Thomas; Bojan Radulovic (Rhys Healey, 58’)
Unused substitutes
Chris Maxwell; Josh Koroma, Brahima Diarra, Luke Daley, Tom Iorpenda
Town booking
Alex Matos (40’)
Gate
23,917
Town fans
1,233
