Back In Town

Credit to Rafa Benitez who substituted pro-actively and carved out the opportunity which put us into the hat for Round 3

“See you in a few weeks” my phone beeped. I wasn’t aware of the Carabao Cup draw at the time but knew instantly what this meant - we had drawn Huddersfield Town in the cup.

The WhatsApp message was from Sean, an old university friend and big Huddersfield Town supporter. As Gaz and I went to university in Huddersfield many, many years ago, we were very keen to revisit the town, see some old haunts and relive some of our youth, so we decided we would make a bit of a day/night of it, and booked a few days off work. Dan joined us.

Gaz drove and it was plain sailing up the M62. We arrived in Huddersfield at around 2.30pm and having checked into the hotel we headed out for a few beers, first visiting The Crown until some of the clientèle forced us into a bit of a change of plan, a shame as the ale was flowing nicely in there. We then moved on to The Lord Wilson Weatherspoons where we met Sean and then onto The Warehouse, where I spent a lot of my time as a student as its good for food, drink and live sports. Nice to see it still standing strong.

As happens, time caught up with us and in the blink of an eye it was about 7.15pm and so time to head towards the John Smith’s stadium. On route we chatted to a few Huddersfield Town supporters and we got to our seats well in time for kick off in what was a much changed line up for Everton with only Alex Iwobi and Michael Keane retained from Saturday’s draw at Leeds United. The atmosphere created by both sets of supporters was vibrant, Everton wearing their black and orange kit were attacking the goal at the far end in the first half.

I felt we began confidently enough. It was good to get a first hand look at Jarrad Branthwaite who seems to be a very composed player. Huddersfield Town too played their part in what was quite a fiery encounter. Everton took the lead on 26 minutes when Tom Davies surged forward brilliantly after a quick give and go with Andros Townsend before placing a delicate through ball to Alex Iwobi. The Nigerian international finished well past Lee Nicholls to give Everton the advantage. The most impressive thing about the goal however was the delicious chest pass by Tom to Andros which triggered the move. If you haven’t yet seen it try and watch it back, it’s quite something.

We almost doubled our money only two minutes later when Niels Nkounkou rampaged forward and slipped the ball in for Moise Kean who finished emphatically, though the flag had unfortunately, and perhaps unfairly, gone up for offside.

Gaz went down early to get the half time beers in and with a few minutes remaining in the half and seemingly no danger of Huddersfield Town levelling matters, Dan, Ben (another university friend who joined us for the match) and I headed up to join him. At the Huddersfield Town away end there isn’t a concourse as such, its more of an outdoor area where fans can mingle, but there are very few, if any, places to rest your drinks or perch. So the sight of Gaz holding three beers together while gripping three packaged hot dogs with his teeth will live long in the memory.

And of course we missed the goal. A routine corner routinely headed in by Tom Lees who escaped the attentions of his marker Michael Keane far too easily. That’s mistake number three in three games for Michael. The knives are being sharpened.

Huddersfield Town made quite the fist of it in the second half, aided of course by a red card for Moise Kean. I’m still unclear exactly what Moise did. Some of the lads around us seemed to think he had grabbed Sorba Thomas by the throat. I’ve seen a brief replay where he stops and squares up to the Huddersfield Town midfielder, but I haven’t seen anything else. That’s all we need with trying to get him off our books.

The Terriers kept on knocking on the door, the closest perhaps being when Duane Holmes let fly from range and Asmir did ever so well to tip it over the crossbar. Like ourselves earlier, Huddersfield Town also had the ball in the net but it was mysteriously chalked out for offside, much to our relief.

So with Everton a man down and on the back foot, it is credit to Rafa Benitez who substituted pro-actively and carved out the opportunity which put us into the hat for Round 3. It was an excellent and patient build up with two of our substitutes, Andre Gomes and Lucas Digne both heavily involved, culminating in Andre Gomes getting free into the penalty area, playing a great one-two with Alex Iwobi and pulling the ball back smartly to Andros Townsend who netted well. Delight amongst the Evertonians.

We managed to see the game out comfortably enough from here forth, with Huddersfield Town’s spirit broken, provoking party time in the away end.

At full time we walked back into the centre and met Sean at The Vulcan, a very popular pub for Huddersfield Town supporters. It was great to chat to some of their fans and get an idea of their outlook on the game. Most of them felt they were a bit unlucky, probably with some justification. As we edged towards midnight we moved on to another bar called Showtime where there were a few other Evertonians enjoying a drink. It turns out we weren’t the only Evertonians making a night of it.

It was great to be back in Huddersfield, a place I’m very fond of. And better still to get into the hat for the next round where a trip to Loftus Road awaits.

Player ratings

Asmir Begovic: He made some good saves though most of them I would say he would be expected to make. He worried me with the ball at his feet as he made some poor decisions. My early opinion is that he’s a downgrade on Robin Olsen, though given financial restrictions its a sensible enough signing. 5

Neils Nkounkou: He made some good bursts forward though I wasn’t convinced by him defensively. 5

Mason Holgate: Mason captained the side and put in a reasonable performance. 6

Michael Keane: In his previous two games this season I feel he has played well though made two big mistakes. In this one he made a mistake and didn’t play particularly well. I think he will do well to remain in the team for Saturday. 5

Jarrad Branthwaite: Jarrad is certainly a very confident player and has a bit of John Stones body language about him. I’m keen to see how he progresses. 6

Jonjo Kenny: I thought Jonjo had a very good game at right back. We are all aware right back is a problem position and the feeling amongst Evertonians is that Jonjo is up to the job. He probably isn’t. Though I would say that if come deadline day we still haven’t addressed the right back position, we could do worse than have Jonjo as back up to Seamus. 7

Jean-Phillippe Gbamin: He did quite well in the middle in his first 90 minutes for over two years. 6

Tom Davies: He was busy as ever and I am still marvelling at that brilliant chest pass he made to get out opening goal up and running. 6

Andros Townsend: He had a good game with a hand in our opener and then scoring the winner of course. A good effort. 7

Alex Iwobi: A very good performance again from Alex who has started the season very impressively. LIke Andros, he scored one and had a hand in the other. An unlikely star this season perhaps. My man of the match. 8

Moise Kean: Disappointing. Disappointing that he managed to get himself sent off, but over and above that I’m disappointed in his performance and general movement. There were times when it looked like there were opportunities for him to make a run and stretch the defence but I found he was incredibly static a lot of the time. We will do well to get him off our books permanently in the next week or so and I suspect another loan move beckons. 4

Substitutes:

Andre Gomes (for Jarrad Branthwaite): He had a poor first five minutes or so but once he got to grips with the game he was excellent and made a key contribution to assist our winning goal. 7

Lucas Digne (for Tom Davies): The performance and professionalism on display from Lucas really highlights his quality and suggests Niels has quite a way to go. 6

Demarai Gray (for Neils Nkounkou): He did well, was busy and lively from the moment he crossed the white line. 7

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