At the John Smith’s Stadium, the drink of choice was Worthington’s best - final word on Huddersfield Town's four-goal drubbing of Sheffield Wednesday
Huddersfield Town have not had anything to toast this season and Saturday was a glorious interlude and the glasses clinked.
Jonathan Worthington, the lad from the Spen Valley, had a day for the ages. North Kirklees was happy and so was south, east and west.
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Hide AdHis pre-match theory that Sheffield Wednesday, who were in action less than 72 hours earlier, would eventually falter if his players maintained their intensity was on the money and how.
Quite how Wednesday get over this particular episode is anybody’s guess, with news of QPR’s victory at Blackburn Rovers applying the salt.
The Owls have scored seven goals in 15 away fixtures this season and conceded 30 at an average of two per game. Not good. Only going one way is the phrase.
The annoying thing from a Wednesday perspective is that after 67 minutes, midway through the second half, the game was there for them, potentially. They went to pieces inexplicably and Huddersfield make hay while the sun shone.
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Hide AdA Huddersfield side who had seen both of their winter-window forward signings in Rhys Healey and Bojan Radulovic exit the fray in proceedings. No bother.
It was pretty unfathomable, but hey-ho. Certainly in the context of this fixture. In the previous five matches between these rivals, four goals were scored. Here, five arrived in a mere 12 minutes. Danny Rohl, after a hard few weeks, had further angst.
He commented: “We conceded from a corner (for the first goal), after this we lost our heads, we wanted to try and hit back immediately and opened up and forgot our defence.
"I take responsibility for the defeat and our situation and I will hopefully try to find a new solution.
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Hide Ad"As long as I’m the manager here, I will fight in every game to take something. I remember after the game at Birmingham, I felt the same, but we came back stronger and closer."
Rohl has provided Wednesday with a transfusion of hope since mid-autumn. Even accounting for that, the sight of a near-empty away section in the final 10 minutes told a story.
Pockets of Huddersfield supporters have left games early previously this season themselves. Not this time on a cathartic afternoon which also bought them time in their search for a permanent replacement for Darren Moore.
Worthington pledged that Town would play with the shackles off before the game. A 4-0 scoreline would suggest that the hosts played front-foot football.
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Hide AdUltimately, the story was all about Wednesday’s open-house defending, ultimately as Huddersfield reprised their second-half golden spell on April 1 of last year against Middlesbrough and made Wednesday look such fools.
The first goal was thoroughly avoidable and it set the tone. Quite why a slight winger in Anthony Musaba was marking a big and brawny centre-half from a set-piece beggars belief. Answers on a postcard, please.
A game which was not going anywhere in particular got a jolt midway through the second half. Sorba Thomas’ corner from the left flank floated towards the back post and gobbled up by Matty Pearson. He was ‘marked’ by Musaba in the loosest sense of the word. And so it began.
Musaba’s pain was compounded after the Owls were mugged in the press soon after. Musaba was caught and the excellent Ben Wiles - in a coming-of-age game after coming on as an early substitute - slipped in Josh Koroma, who rounded Jimmy Beadle and said thank you very much.
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Hide AdThe third was similarly reprehensible from a Wednesday perspective. And beautiful from a Town one.
Jonathan Hogg’s free-kick picked out Thomas on the right after Kristian Pedersen clocked off. The winger, a talismanic figure at Huddersfield for swathes of this season, cut inside and did the rest. Party time was promptly ushered in on a drab February day as Wednesday’s packed away end thinned substantially, understandably. Short-changed on the road. Again.
It got worse.
The tin lid on a cameo of action which had to be seen to be believed came when Di’Shon Bernard’s edgy back pass lacked beef and conviction. Beadle and Michael Ihiekwe played an impromptu game of ‘after you, sir’ and wise Koroma picked pockets and was away.
After deliberating, he finally finished and Wednesday’s ignominy was complete.
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Hide AdAll good, Jonny boy’, as an ecstatic Town supporter piped up in the main stand after the final whistle. Quite.
How Sheffield Wednesday come back from this after being Rohled over, pitifully, is some question.
Huddersfield Town: Nicholls; Pearson, Balker, Lees, Spencer, Matos, Hogg; Thomas, Healey (Wiles 24), Koroma; Radulovic (Diarra 58). Unused substitutes: Bellagambi, Edwards, Jones, Jackson, Daley, Iorpenda, Falls.
Sheffield Wednesday: Beadle; Valentin, Ihiekwe, Bernard, Pedersen (James 82); Palmer, Bannan (Diaby 82); Gassama, Ugbo (Cadamarteri 63) Musaba (Poveda 73); Smith (Wilks 73). Unused substitutes: Charles, Vaulks, Famewo, Siqueira.
Referee: M Donohue (Greater Manchester).