Saturday’s FA Cup action saw only one West Yorkshire team in action, with Huddersfield Town losing 1-0 at home to Charlton Athletic.
The game was quite a scrappy affair, but Town had chances in the first half through Danny Ward and Sean Scannell. Neither side could find the cutting edge in the final third of the pitch during the first 45 minutes, with Oliver Norwood’s header and Lewis Gobern’s volley missing the target. Huddersfield paid the price for missing their chances, when 10 minutes after the restart, Lawrie Wilson’s pass found Simon Church, who slotted it past Town keeper Alex Smithies. Despite pressure from the home side, a combination of fantastic goalkeeping by Charlton’s Ben Alnwick, and poor finishing, meant that Charlton won the tie, and The Addicks will face Sheffield Wednesday in the 5th Round of the FA Cup.
Moving on to last night’s games, Leeds United and Bradford City both picked up draws from their respective games, whilst Huddersfield Town suffered their third consecutive defeat.
Leeds drew 1-1 at home to Ipswich Town, in an even game. The visiting team had the best of the first half, with David McGoldrick spurning a one-on-one chance, then having a shot cleared off the line by Leeds defender Jason Pearce. Ipswich took the lead in the 57th minute, with McGoldrick’s long range effort beating Leeds goalkeeper Paddy Kenny at his near post, much to the discontent of the 20,000-strong crowd at Elland Road. This goal sparked a Leeds revival, however, and when Cameron Stewart was fouled in the box, Ross McCormack slotted the penalty home, to rescue a point for the home side. McCormack, subject this week to a £3.5 million bid from West Ham, has now got 19 goals for the season, and needs to keep up his goalscoring record if Leeds are to stop this dismal run of form.
Huddersfield lost 2-1 away at Bournemouth, on a very heavy pitch at Dean Court. The boggy pitch meant that the first half was quite scrappy, with no real chances of note, but the home side took the lead 10 minutes after the half-time break, through Lewis Grabban’s penalty. Huddersfield responded just 4 minutes later, when Nahki Wells’ pass pierced the home defence, leaving Calum Woods through on goal, and he smashed it into the net to equalise for The Terriers. Bournemouth scored the winner with 20 minutes to go, through Tokelo Rantie’s effort, leaving Huddersfield 13th in the Championship table.
Bradford City drew 0-0 at home to high-flying Preston North End, in a game that saw debutant Kyle Bennett sent off. The incident happened 25 minutes into the game, when Bennett and Preston midfielder Neil Kilkenny clashed. Both shoved each other, before Kilkenny went down, potentially feigning injury. Referee Stuart Attwell, who made some very dubious decisions over the course of the game, sent off both players, a decision which infuriated the 13,686 crowd at Valley Parade. In what was quite a scrappy game, both sides had very few chances, but Preston nearly won the game with 20 minutes to go when Josh Brownhill’s strike hit the post. Gary Jones was impressive in the centre of midfield, but even he could not provide Bradford with the spark to win the game, and Bradfor d have now won just one game in their last seventeen, a run of form that has seen them drop out of the play-off picture, and down into 12th place.
