Huddersfield Town 3-2 Scunthorpe United

Huddersfield Town story posted by Sean Makin on 17/04/2004
Young John McAliskey scored two goals on his full debut as Town survived two sendings-off to keep their automatic promotion alive in a game full of drama at the McAlpine with a 3-2 win against Scunthorpe United.Huddersfield Town 3-2 Scunthorpe United
Town needed to the win the game after been defeated at Kidderminster on Easter Monday with Scunthorpe being in controversy the week prior to the match with their Chairman resigning and Brian Laws been reinstated after being sacked twenty days earlier and Scunthorpe was also beaten on Easter Monday by Cheltenham 2-1

The Town made a few changes from the defeat at Kidderminster with Harkins and McAliskey both making full debuts in for the suspended Pawel Abbott and Andy Booth.
Scunthorpe had the prat that is Kevin Sharp back from suspension and the old man Peter Beagrie playing in the side both received boos and chants throughout the match.

The Terriers Skipper Efe Sodje had a nightmare of a game, Before the match Sodje had received the Player Of The Month of March but got sent off on 68 minutes with a challenge on Barwick who made a meal of it and scoring a own goal which I thought was a good finish but unfortunately into his own net.
Dave Mirfin had but Town into the lead after only five minutes, Town won a free kick just outside the Scunthorpe penalty area on the right hand side, Schofield decided to shoot instead of a cross, it looked an easy save for Iron?s keeper Tom Evans, He made a hash of crouching to catch the ball it spun over his head and Mirfin was on hand for an easy tap in for his second goal of the season. Sweet revenge looked on the cards for that 6-2 defeat down at Glanford Park in November.
But then Sodje 3 minutes later put the ball into the back of his own net and put Scunthorpe back on level terms, A curling corner was knocked into the 6 yard box by Peter Beagrie , Sodje headed the ball into his own net from around 5 yards out with no Scunthorpe player near him putting pressure on the Nigerian.

Sodje?s day then got bad to worse, Another corner on forty minutes was curled into the box by Beagrie, Sodje was ruled to have illegally impeded Steve Torpey, with whom he had a long running battle with.
Steve McLean who put a hat-trick past Town down at Glanford Park in November and the Division 3?s top scorer notched his 25th goal of the season. He stepped up to take the penalty, Rachubka got a hand to the initial penalty but as the ball spun back of the post, McLean was the quickest to react to slam the ball into the back of the net.
The Terriers looked down and out at this stage and their hopes of automatic promotion was looking to slip away from Town?s grasp.

Mirfin handled McLean brilliantly at times but the old man Ex-Bradford Scum Peter ?peado? Beagrie pulling the strings as Scunthorpe was looking for the third goal.
Terry Barwick clearly handled in the box and the referee waved play on, and then sent off Sodje for chopping down Barwich who rolled around the field pretending to be in agony. That was Sodje?s second sending off of the season. But the young McAliskey turned the game on its head and showed that he could be another Jon Stead.

In for suspended Andy Booth, McAliskey showed Booth-like-headers in knocking in Jon Worthington cross on 86 minutes to turn defeat into victory for the promotion chasing Town.
The Town fans raised the raised the roof when McAliskey scored the winning goal on the 90 minute mark. The 11,000 McAlpine crowd went wild as Schofield broke free on the right wing and found McAliskey with a pin-point cross who headed the ball into the back of the net with Scunthorpe keeper Tom Evans no where to been seen.

Town had to play an anxious two minutes added on with nine men as the referee Mr Robert Probert was shown a second yellow card for jumping into the crowd and booked McAliskey for celebrating with the fans.
To top it all off the referee banished Terry Yorath to the stands for questioning him about the penalty decision. I wonder what Jacko will give this referee a score out of a 100 he was awful the worst referee I have seen this season!

Huddersfield: Rachubka, Mirfin, Sodje, Yates, Holdsworth, Carss, Worthington, Harkins, Lloyd, Schofield, McAliskey. Subs: Senior, Scott, Young, Edwards, Hughes.

Scunthorpe: Evans, Byrne, Groves, Butler, Stanton, Sparrow, Barwick, Beagrie, Sharp, MacLean, Torpey. Subs: Hayes, Lee Ridley, Taylor, Kilford, Calvo-Garcia.

Referee: L Probert (Gloucestershire)

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