Huddersfield Town vs Birmingham City

I've seen Huddersfield's stadium from a distance on the train countless times but have never had the pleasure of going there, until last Saturday afternoon. As a rule, I'm not a fan of 'new' stadiums. There are plenty of faceless, generic arenas out there, and you could argue that Huddersfield's John Smith's Stadium falls under this category (the stadium has no real name, simply adopting whatever sponsor they have at the time), but I enjoyed my time there.  Unlike for example, the Keepmoat, home of Doncaster Rovers, or the Reebok, home of Bolton Wanderers, which are on industrial estates far from the respective town centres and leaves you with the impression that you could be watching this game absolutely anywhere in the UK, Huddersfield's ground is close to the centre and, you don't feel so boxed in, with a forest to one side and views of the town the other.

So I saw them against Birmingham City. I was keen to see Ravel Morrison, once on Manchester United's books and dubbed "the new Scholes" in some quarters but whose disciplinary matters proved too hard to handle for even Fergie and co. One comparison that rang true was his ability to pass - the best on the pitch in this aspect, but other than that he was underwhelming. Jack Butland in the City goal, who was England's third keeper at last years European Championships was an impressive shot-stopper but needs to work on his goal kicks which were woeful. Huddersfield were fairly shoddy apart from their number 7, the ex-Premier League front pairing of Jermaine Beckford and James Vaughan were unimpressive. The game ended 1-1. Back there in two weeks for the FA cup – they’re slashing the ticket prices by at least half, in some cases a third, so hopefully there won’t be ten thousand empty seats next time round.