Grimsby Reserves 2 Huddersfield Town Reserves 1
Akpo Sodje continued his excellent form in the reserves this week by scoring his second goal in two games. The imposing striker, who signed a short term contract with Town a fortnight ago, scored the Terriers' only goal as Grimsby capitalised on an uninspired performance. Reserve coach John Dungworth's side did not really get going until the final fifteen minutes of the game by which time had already bagged two goals and there was too little time to scrap a result.
Town had chances to win the game and could have had two or three goals in the first half. Anthony Lloyd, who has been excellent in recent second string encounters, missed the ball on 15 minutes as he tried to volley home from six yards. That came just moments after defender John McCombe had fired a cross from a corner over the bar from a tight angle. Young striker John McAliskey had the best effort with a chip from 40 yards after the keeper miss-kicked straight to him. However, the lofty frontman saw effort tipped over the bar by the recovering keeper.
Town stopper Phil Senior was then forced into an excellent save from Ronnie Bull minutes before the interval, but he could do nothing about the opening goal which came ten minutes after half time when Bull collected Graham Hockless' through ball and slotted it home.
15 minutes later, Town were two goals down when Clint Marcelle found himself clean through on goal after a poor clearance by Senior. Chris Hyam prodded the ball through for Marcelle who beat the stranded Senior.
After scoring a screamer against Scunthorpe reserves the previous week, the 23 year old brother of Town defender Efe, bagged his second reserve goal on 84 minutes crowning Town's best move of the game. Good work from John McAliskey and particularly Adnan Ahmed saw Sodje striker collect the ball on the edge of the box, hold off a tackle and smack a well struck effort low into the bottom of the net.
Town: Phil Senior, Aaron Hardy, Anthony Lloyd, John McCombe, Nathan Clarke, Nat brown, Michael Collins, Matthew Young, John McAliskey, Akpo Sodje, Adnan Ahmed.