Huddersfield 1 Watford 2: Smithies makes apology as Town unearth another academy gem

ALEX SMITHIES held up his hands for the blunder which led to Watford’s winning goal before hailing the emergence of another of Huddersfield’s academy products.
Huddersfield's Danny Ward celebrates his goal.Huddersfield's Danny Ward celebrates his goal.
Huddersfield's Danny Ward celebrates his goal.

The goalkeeper allowed Lewis McGugan’s 44th-minute free-kick over the defensive wall to bounce off his chest and present Daniel Pudil with a simple tap-in to make it 2-1.

It prompted Town chief Mark Robins to make a half-time substitution, bringing on United States-born but Wakefield-raised Duane Holmes in place of unusually ineffective play-maker Adam Clayton.

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Diminutive 18-year-old Holmes, at the club for a decade, certainly added an attacking spark from a midfield role just behind lone striker James Vaughan in his third cameo role.

But with Robins also having gone to three central defenders from a flat back four, it enabled Watford to use their counter-attacking strength to the full and they could easily have added another three goals but for some poor finishing, solid defending from Peter Clarke and a top-class save from Smithies when Fernando Forestieri cut through them and tried to dink the ball in.

The Argentinian-born former Italy Under-21 striker has been dubbed a poor man’s Messi but he looks a cut above Championship level even though he tends to infuriate opposition fans by going to ground too easily.

His first-half equaliser was sublime, however, and came a minute after Danny Ward glanced home an inviting cross from Adam Hammill to give Town the lead as they matched last season’s beaten play-off finalists.

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Clarke could possibly have intercepted higher up the pitch as Forestieri sparked a flowing, three-man counter which he finished with an instep volley inside Smithies’s left-hand post from wing-back Davide Faraoni’s cross.

As the half progressed, it could have been a different outcome had not top scorer Vaughan, who received scant support, not planted wide a free header from another great delivery from Hammill and had not Smithies made his rare error.

But Watford, whose surge to that Wembley final was sparked when they first switched to a 3-5-2 formation in last season’s corresponding encounter at the John Smith’s Stadium, proved a couple of rungs above Town with the quality of their passing game, players taking the ball at speed rather than waiting for it to arrive, and deserved their win.

They had to withstand a rally from their hosts, who were defending an unbeaten home record, but although there were several ‘oohs and aahs’, goalkeeper Manuel Almunia repelled anything his three central defenders failed to clear.

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Smithies conceded: “We are disappointed and I’m not happy with my part in the second goal but I hold my hands up.

“It’s part of life as a goalkeeper, unfortunately. Players can make mistakes all over the pitch and it doesn’t lead to anything and strikers will miss chances but that does not cost the game.

“Unfortunately, I’ve made an error today which is never nice but I move on – I basically just spilled it. It was just one of those things and it’s something I don’t do very often.

“I hold my hands up and apologise to the lads but you move on from there. I just tried to ensure that everything else I did in the game was a positive contoributon.”

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Smithies came through the ranks at Town and he said of Georgia-born dreadlocked Holmes: “I’m really pleased for him. He came on today and gave another positive impact. He’s what we need really. It’s nice as a local lad and ex-academy player myself to see players like that coming through – it’s been a while since the likes of Jack Hunt (now at Crystal Palace).

“Duane works hard and I’m really pleased for him. He trains largely with the Under-21s so I have only seen snippets of him but every time he’s impressed me.

“I would like to think he can push our players and one day he will make a start. I’m sure we could trust him. In three games he has not let anyone down – he has done more than that, doing really well and I would have more than enough confidence in him if he was given a start in the Championship.

“He’s hurt teams every time he’s played. He’s run at teams, kept the ball well and set up goals in such a short space of time and there’s no reason why he can’t earn a start and have a positive impact.”

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Jonathan Hogg echoed those comments after facing the club he helped to Wembley last season.

Hogg, who made a £400,000 switch to enable him to spend more time with his young family in the north-east, said: “Duane has suprised me, to be fair. I have watched him a couple of times in reserve games and he’s impressed me and is one for the future. He’s a little lad and he’s hard to barge off it. Once he gets running, it’s hard to catch him and he’s a tricky little guy.”

Of facing his former team-mates, Hogg continued: “We are not too far off them to say they could have been in the Premier League. We are improving as a team and have just to keep going and thinking positive and take the game to teams like these as we did at the end.

“Watford have a good squad with some good young talent and will be up there or thereabouts at the end of the season.”

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On Forestieri, who scored his first goal for Watford against Town on loan from Udinese last season before signing a five-and-a-half-year deal, Hogg added: “He gets in some little holes and little pockets where it is hard for the defenders to come and pick him up and where it is hard for the midfielders to drop too deep to do likewise so he’s a quality player. He’s terrible to play against.”

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