Huddersfield Town 5 Milton Keynes Dons FC 0

Last updated : 18 February 2006 By Footymad Previewer
First-half goals from Martin McIntosh, Gary Taylor-Fletcher and Jon Worthington helped Huddersfield cruise to their biggest win of the season and end MK Dons' mini-revival.

McIntosh opened the scoring on 19 minutes with a mis-hit shot into the ground which bounced up and over keeper Matt Baker's palms as he tried to capture the ball.

Taylor-Fletcher arguably scored the game's best goal with a superbly-placed header from a tight angle after ghosting on to Dan Smith's free-kick on 24 minutes.

And midfielder Worthington ensured there was no way back for the visitors 12 minutes later when he tapped in from close range after David Graham had rounded Baker and squared the ball for the midfielder to score into an empty net.

Huddersfield could have been six or more goals up at the break and it was only wasteful finishing from Andy Booth, Chris Brandon and Taylor-Fletcher that kept the score down.

It took until the 77th minute for the home side to stretch their lead further when David Mirfin's header from Smith's corner crept in despite the efforts of Ben Harding to clear it off the line.

And youngster Michael Collins, 19, rivalled Taylor-Fletcher for goal of the day with a 20-yard effort driven low into the bottom right-hand corner after Brandon's cross had been teed up by Danny Schofield.

The visitors, who had beaten Blackpool and Nottingham Forest recently, as well as taking a vital point at Yeovil in their battle to avoid relegation, came closest to scoring through substitute Clive Platt.

Striker Platt, who replaced the infective Izale McLeod on 53 minutes, found the side-netting with a vicious volley struck from Dean Lewington's free-kick.

The visitors had chances earlier in the game when it was goalless but failed to test Town keeper Phil Senior.

The best of those came on 11 minutes when Scott Taylor nicked the ball off Booth and romped forward before striking a low 20-yard shot wide of the target.