Wanderers continued their impressive home form to advance into the last-16 of the Vertu Trophy with a confidence-boosting win over League One rivals Huddersfield, writes Pete Oliver.
The Whites maintained their interest in a competition which brought them Wembley joy in 2023 with a slick performance which earned them a place in Saturday’s draw on the back of a seventh win in nine home games since losing 4-0 to the Terriers in September.
A first-half header from Klaidi Lolos and a late double from substitute Aaron Collins – who took his Trophy goal tally for the season to five – went some way to putting the record straight and kept Wanderers in the perfect frame of mind for the weekend visit of local rivals Wigan Athletic.
Boss Ian Evatt made seven changes to the side that had started last Tuesday night’s league win over Mansfield but this was still a proven line-up given the chance to stretch their legs ahead of derby day.
Two of those to get an opportunity were Lolos and Jordi Osei-Tutu, who combined for the opening goal five minutes before the break
Osei-Tutu was starting his first game since Wanderers’ opening win of the group stage at Barrow in September and it was his deep cross which was perfectly headed home by Lolos, who steered an effort back across goalkeeper Jacob Chapman and in off the post.
That came as Wanderers got on top following a bright start from the visitors, who are sitting fourth in the league table on the back of a decent recent run.
They showed six changes from their weekend winning line-up but also went strong and could have led early on but for an excellent save from Luke Southwood to keep out an effort from Josh Koroma.
Thereafter Chapman was the busier of the keepers with a number of big saves just after half-time as Wanderers looked to kill off the tie with a dominant passage of play.
His first kept out a thunderbolt from George Thomason as the Whites’ captain returned from his one-match ban. Thomason’s looping header from the corner that followed then dropped down off the bar for Lolos to lift a close-range effort over the top.
And Wanderers should have made one of their chances count to give themselves a cushion as Chapman denied Will Forrester from a Lolos’ pull-back before making further vital blocks to thwart Thomason and substitutes Szabolcs Schön from well-crafted opportunities.
With Huddersfield’s substitutes also making an impact, Lasse Sorensen threatened an equaliser with a strike which was well saved by Southwood as Town began to offer some late resistance.
But any concern that Wanderers would pay for not making their superiority count and possibly get dragged into a penalty shoot-out disappeared as Collins added his second successive two-goal salvo to make himself the leading scorer in the competition so far.
Chapman blotted his copybook with a poor touch which allowed the striker – player of the round in the qualifying stages – to tap in with seven minutes to go.
And Collins then coolly slotted home from Dion Charles’ through-ball to complete an excellent night’s work which lost no lustre with an unfortunate own-goal from Josh Dacres-Cogley as the ball flew on off the defender after the impressive Southwood had made another solid save in his pursuit of a clean sheet.
Wanderers: Southwood; Jones, Almeida Santos (Johnston 70), Forrester; Matete; Williams (Dacres-Cogley 77), Lolos, Thomason (McAtee 70), Osei-Tutu (Schön 57); Adeboyejo (Collins 77), Charles. Substitutes: Baxter, Sharples-Ahmed.
Booked: Lolos
Huddersfield Town: Chapman; Pearson (Sorensen 66), Helik, Lonwijk; Spencer, Kasumu, Iorpenda, Ruffels (Headley 66); Ward (Ladapo 66), Radulovic, Koroma (Wiles 79). Substitutes: Maxwell, Turton.
Booked: Pearson, Iorpenda, Koroma, Kasumu, Headley.
Referee: Scott Jackson
Attendance: 1,802 (444 Huddersfield)