diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 7aade22d1..0aa9b4f42 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -105,6 +105,8 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 - Fixed a `CartesiaTTSService` issue that was causing the application to hang
   after Cartesia's 5 minutes timed out.
 
+- Fixed an issue preventing `SpeechmaticsSTTService` from transcribing audio.
+
 ## [0.0.81] - 2025-08-25
 
 ### Added
diff --git a/src/pipecat/services/speechmatics/stt.py b/src/pipecat/services/speechmatics/stt.py
index d1091b5f0..7ac4c6f2a 100644
--- a/src/pipecat/services/speechmatics/stt.py
+++ b/src/pipecat/services/speechmatics/stt.py
@@ -581,7 +581,6 @@ class SpeechmaticsSTTService(STTService):
             logger.debug(f"{self} Connected to Speechmatics STT service")
         except Exception as e:
             logger.error(f"{self} Error connecting to Speechmatics: {e}")
-        finally:
             self._client = None
 
     async def _disconnect(self) -> None: