Incompetent referee Eddie Ilderton showed all and sundry that he was terrified of upsetting the 10,680-strong Yorkshire crowd and proceeded to give a refereeing performance which simply defied all belief and managed to fail to award Southend at least one of four blatant penalty appeals and then only cautioned Terriers defender David Mirfin for a deliberate assault on Carl Pettefer which has almost certainly ruled out the Portsmouth midfielder for the rest of the season.

Huddersfield, flying high in the third promotion spot were on a high with manager Peter Jackson having just scooped the Nationwide Manager of the Month award and the healthy crowd were in fully vociferous mood for a match which, in the end, was somewhat dour.

Southend, who saw Mark Warren skippering the side in place of the suspended Kevin Maher – his midfield place taken by Lewis Hunt – failed to really get going in the first half and only had a decent second half performance to show for their efforts.

It was the home side who forced all the early pressure, but a decent opportunity was not carved until the seventeenth minute when a Danny Schofield corner was headed inches wide of the target by Andy Booth.

A rare flourish forward from the visitors saw Nicky Nicolau curl a free kick a whisker wide of the post before a re-take, for what we are not sure, saw Mark Gower drive a shot into the arms of goalkeeper Paul Rachubka.

However, right on the half hour mark Town stole the lead with a freakish goal which really shouldn’t have breached the Shrimpers rearguard. A Schofield corner was easily dealt with, but the resulting log throe-in from Efetobore Sodje found Pawel Abbott unmarked on the edge of the six yard box and in what seemed almost slow motion an acrobatic overhead kick drifted past the outstretched arms of Darryl Flahavan before sneaking into the bottom left hand corner.

As Southend tried in vein to get themselves back into the contest Drewe Broughton was comprehensively upended in the penalty area by Sodje, but Ilderton took no notice of the incident before the last chance before half time saw Booth’s head flick a Tony Carss free kick wide of Flahavan’s upright.

Half-time – Huddersfield Town 1 Southend United 0

Southend showed much more life in the second period and were most definitely the best of the two sides, but Tilson’s men did give possession away too often and just seemed to lack a certain bit of firepower upfront after Leon Constantine had been pushed out wide just ten minutes after the re-start after Tesfaye Bramble was brought on to replace the injured Pettefer.

Indeed it was the visitor’s from the South Essex coast who created the first chance of the second half when Arsenal loanee Nicolau smashed a volley just of target.

Flahavan played his part 0n 53 minutes when he made a fantastic stop to deny Booth who had been played clean through on goal before Pettefer brilliantly robbed the ball off of Mirfin before sprinting forward and driving a low effort just wide of Rachubka’s post.

However, only second later Mirfin, obviously upset about losing possession to Pettefer, decided to get his own back by trying to finish the youngster’s footballing career. As the midfielder, on loan from Portsmouth, lined-up to take another effort at goal, Mirfin charged in and with absolutely no intention of playing the ball dived in, knee-high, with a disgusting two-footed lunge which had Pettefer writhing in agony on the floor before being eventually carried-off with the aid of a stretcher to the despicable booing of the home support. Then, amazingly referee Ilderton only awarded a yellow card to Mirfin, which simply incensed the travelling supporters beyond all recognition.

But then Southend began to create further openings, Gower laid a free kick off to Mark Bentley who struck an effort only inches off target before a quickly taken free-kick from Gower minutes later caught the home side out but unfortunately struck the underside of the crossbar before bouncing down on the wrong side of the goalline with Huddersfield eventually scrambling the ball clear.

By now though, referee Ilderton had completely lost the plot and decided to try his best not to give anything to the visitor’s. Mirfin, of all people, hauled Bentley over in the area before Bramble hit a shot just over as the penalty appeals were turned down before Broughton was then wrestled to the floor inside the area by Sodje, but yet again the spot-kick appeals were turned down. But then came the icing on the cake you could say. Bentley’s goalbound shot saw Steve Yates stick out two hands, actually catch the ball and then hack it clear, and with every Southend player and supporter leaping around appealing, Ilderton took absolutely no notice, in the most incredible declined penalty decision ever seen.

As far as Southend were concerned, that was that and once again the Shrimpers begin to look worryingly over their shoulders with a hugely important game against Darlington only 48 hours away.

Mark Wallis
www.thelittlegazette.com

**We at TLG Towers would like to apologise for the delay in this report being uploaded - this was due to a power cut at footyMAD HQ which stopped us from bringing you our usual speedy coverage. Unfortunately an event such as this is unavoidable, and we do our best to get our information to you as quickly as possible**