City 1 Huddersfield 2
Report by Mike King
After last Saturday's unexpected reverse at Peterborough in the league, this FA Cup fourth round replay against Huddersfield was an excellent opportunity for City to get back into winning ways and look forward to a fifth round tie against Premiership side Wigan next Sunday. Could the City repeat the 6 – 1 thrashing of Huddersfield 6 weeks ago? Doubt it but confidence should be high.
Looking at the team selection by manager Pearson, it was hard to see if the City were taking this tie too seriously, with Gallagher, Wellens and Futacs coming into the side (not even being put in the shop window after the end of the transfer window), with King and Drinkwater keeping the Subs bench warm.
With City attacking the South stand, the game started brightly with both sides playing good football, but after 4 minutes, a reckless challenge by the usually reliable Morgan on Lee ended with referee Adcock giving a direct free kick. The official paced out the required 10 yards (many officials allow only 6/7 yards to the wall), and up stepped the impressive Clayton to fire the ball home past the wall and the outstretched Schmeichel from 25 yards.
However the Terriers advantage didn't last long as the City hit back 2 minutes later. Ritchie De Laet was on the end of Knockaert's corner, and after his header was blocked, on loan Keane was on hand to pass the ball home past Bennett from close range.
This should have spurred on the Foxes but the game became a torrid affair. Nugent was out of sorts and couldn't control any ball pinged into him and Futacs seemed to be trying too hard to impress, so the Huddersfield defence and keeper Bennett were rarely troubled and possession was cheaply given away. The Terriers forward, Lee, was more impressive, controlling the ball and passing to a colleague, often with his chest.
The first half petered out with the City faithful not satisfied with the performance so far although Huddersfield did try hard with Wallace testing Schmeichel and Scannell's shot blocked by Morgan . Gallagher, shooting from 30 yards, and Wellens, were trying hard but the front two were letting them down, while the defence were coping with anything thrown at them, Keane having a good game with his good ball distribution.
With both teams coming out unchanged for the second half, it was City who looked to get forward early but Gallagher’s teasing left wing cross was cut out at the crucial moment by Bennett. Wellens then flashed a swerving half volley wide on 53 minutes as the visitors began to defend much deeper. Then a Gallagher deflected effort won City a corner, which was headed back across goal by Morgan for Futacs to head goalwards, but Lee got the block on the line.
The City looked to work it wide at every opportunity, and it almost paid dividends on 68 minutes, but Nugent’s close range header from Konchesky’s cross was straight at Bennett. Schmeichel then pulled off an acrobatic save to deny Clayton who roamed all over the pitch. Vaughan then came on for Lee. Huddersfield skipper Anthony Gerrard then saw yellow for a late tackle on Knockaert but the City's best chance of the half fell to Futacs. An excellent cross by Knockaert into the 6 yard box found Futacs 2 yards out but a simple tap in was completely miss-kicked and Huddersfield cleared the ball.
Then Pearson made a double change with Vardy and Waghorn replacing the ineffective Nugent and Futacs. However, almost immediately Huddersfield scored which turned out to be the winner. The impressive Scannell took the ball past Koncheksy and James on the left, probable fearing a tackle would end up with a penalty, before sliding the ball underneath the advancing Schmeichel, giving his side a 2-1 lead. Other than a few Huddersfield cheers, the City's faithful were stunned.
Dyer then replaced Wellens, but the winger saw little of the ball. The Foxes pushed for the equaliser to force extra time but with few chances arising, with the visitors seeing most of the 4 minutes additional time out in the City's left hand corner.
Disappointment all round but a poor performance probably didn't deserve a victory, with everyone saying "We can concentrate on the League now." But with two 2-1 defeats in four days, this looks like a dip in form which must be reversed against Charlton next Tuesday, as Hull won and went 3 points above us. As with Saturday's defeat, Pearson's substitution timings look poor as on both occasions, Waghorn coming on and it ends up with the opposition scoring immediate vital goals.
Were Pearson and the players wanting another game(s) in the devalued FA Cup? If they didn't the crowd were short changed even though reduced prices helped swell the crowd to over 14,000, but us who travel over 100 miles to the King Power Stadium deserve a full first team giving maximum effort to win the game, and FA Cup glory!
City: Schmeichel, De Laet, Morgan (c), Keane, Konchesky, James, Gallagher, Wellens (Dyer 82), Knockaert, Futacs (Vardy 74), Nugent (Waghorn 74). Unused subs: Drinkwater, King, Logan, Moore
Huddersfield: Bennett, Woods, Dixon, Gerrard (c), Wallace, Scannell, Clayton, Arfield, Lee (Vaughan 70), Atkinson (Gobern 84), Sinnott (Norwood 65). Unused subs: Colgan, Hunt, Clarke, Crook
Referee: James Adcock Attendance: 14,517
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation