THE VERDICT: STOKE 4 TOWN 3 Town excite, but they must stop clowning around

CARLOS Corberan’s arrival came with a promise that Huddersfield Town would be entertaining and the full three-ring circus was certainly open for business here.

The Terriers’ ringmaster under the bright lights was Carel Eiting, picking passes and finding spaces with his own movement and that of others in his best performance to date.

Flying up and down the wing – without the aid of a trapeze – was Isaac Mbenza, the rejuvenated winger, who, like Eiting, scored one and made one on a busy and impressive afternoon.

In terms of individuals doing what they should be doing, it was difficult to fault him: the run he made as he took his goal was far from his only good move and he was not far away from finding Fraizer Campbell for a late equaliser.

But as with any circus, those dazzling and spectacular moments are undercut by a lingering sense with this side that you’re only moments away from it suddenly turning into an unwelcome clown show.

That phrasing is perhaps slightly harsh, but not massively. This is the third time in six games that the Terriers have taken a lead and then ending up losing the game. They have scored in all of their last ten games – 15 goals in all – but won just four of them, losing five.

It’s tempting to look at the scoreline and write it off as just one of those ridiculous games you get once in a while. There were 11 shots on target over the whole match and seven of them ended up in the net. It happens sometimes, especially at this level.

But these are two sides that have just had a two-week gap between fixtures, not a weary and heavylegged slog at the end of a busy run of festive fixtures. If any of the 12 games between this one and January 2 should have featured more control, fewer errors and a sense of a well-drilled plan being executed, it should have been this one.

Instead, Town were 3-2 down at half-time, and 4-2 down just before the hour, with all of the Stoke goals involving something between poor defending and ludicrous self-destruction.

That a game like this should come under the floodlights at Stoke offers almost too easy a point of comparison to last year’s fixture: an excruciatingly tight and often dull game, and intentionally so, that was settled by Juninho Bacuna’s late goal off the bench – Town’s first win of the season.

This occasion was just outright chaos at both ends of the pitch and the scoreline was as fair and accurate a reflection of the game.

Both sides had club debutant goalkeepers between the sticks, which may have played a part. It certainly did for Town as the Manchester United loanee had a day to 4

2

Bursik, Smith, Souttar, Batth, Fox, Obi, Clucas, Brown (Collins 66), Powell (Gregory 86), Campbell (Vokes 85), Fletcher (Cousins 73). SUBS NOT USED: Ince, Chester, Oakley-Boothe, Nna Noukeu.

forget, most egregiously giving the ball away unnecessarily off Richard Stearman’s backpass when punting it upfield seemed the only sensible option even in a side that encourages its players to pass it out from the back. That approach has helped deliver some truly wonderful goals this season and you can