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Nerves, what nerves? As last Saturday’s opponents trotted home empty handed following an excellent showing by the Bluebirds in our own nest, and Bradford later that afternoon were getting plucked at home by Stevenage, many followers of our club were no doubt raising a glass or 2 and sighing with relief that our job of securing an instant return to the 2nd tier is now almost done and dusted.
Whilst we shouldn’t assume anything until it’s 100% confirmed it would take the slip up of all slip ups for our swashbuckling warriors to let our promotion hopes fade now, indeed, theoretically Tuesday nights game up in Yorkshire could be the one the sees us over the line should we win and both Bradford & Stockport lose, and so, our unfancied, young, inexperienced band of merry men (and boys) head to the Accu Stadium (formerly the McAlpine amongst other names) to take on tough opponents in the form of Huddersfield Town.
The mighty City will once again be roared on by around 1,200 travelling fans – let’s hope we see another repeat performance of Saturday (though maybe with an earlier goal just to settle the nerves eh
)?
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A cover from one of the lesser known Enid Blyton books - The Famous Five Go Fecking Mental v Huddersfield
Who Are You?
The Terriers are on what feels like their 50th manager this season following the departures of Lee Grant and Liam Manning, although the nature of manning’s departure (whether that is temporary or permanent ultimately) is dreadful and thoughts/condolences still go out to him and his family following the sad loss of his baby boy last year.
With Manning stepping away, coaches Martin Drury and Jon Stead, who joined the Terriers with Manning, have been placed in charge of the team for the remainder of the campaign and since their appointment the team have drawn 2 and won 1 of their 3 games.
Town’s top scorer is actually still the departed former Chelsea loanee Leo Casteldine, who is now playing his trade at Middlesbrough. The youngster had notched 10 goals in 23 games before departing.
Behind Casteldine comes Serb Bojan Radulovic who has 8 in his 22 games. The Serb had previously moved away from Huddersfield on loan following their relegation but has rejoined to some effect. he also has 5 assists to his name so is clearly a bit of a handful.
On assists, the top 2 spots in this category go to Marcus Harness and American Lynden Gooch both of whom have 6 assists each.
Welsh interest comes in the shape of Cardiff born defender Joe Low who started with the Wurzels but failed to make an impression with them. Several loan moves later he made a switch to Wycombe in 2023 and on to the Terriers at the start of this season where he has made 25 appearances. Also joining Low is fellow Welsh Joe, Joe Taylor but he is now on loan at Wigan so won’t be facing us again this week.
I’m not sure it counts but Huddersfield also contain Bobby Walesm with the Scottish forward on loan from them down West? He has made just 5 appearances though.
Last Time Out
The home game v Huddersfield at the CCS was one of our ‘crackers’ with the Bluebirds racing into an early lead through Salech, only to be pegged back after half time. Salech again nudged the Bluebirds in front 11 minutes later and it looked as though we were home and dry when Isaak Davies put us 2 goals clear with just 4 minutes left on the clock with a lovely finish after cutting inside following a mazy run, but Huddersfield refused to buckle completely and just 3 minutes later pulled a goal back to set up a nervy finish, which thankfully the City saw out.
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The table never lies - it's been a pretty consistent top 6 since December
Form
They say form is temporary but class is permanent, and boy oh boy did we show our class on Saturday against a high flying Bolton team, with that result not only moving us to within a whisker of our return to the 2nd tier but also having the impact of making our recent form look far more respectable.
The Terriers form since Laim Manning stepped away has been decent as mentioned earlier, however it is still beginning to look like they will miss out on a play-off spot – some blow for 1 of the sides who were much fancied for automatic promotion at the start of the season.
If they do miss out they will be cursing the number of draws they have had in recent weeks as to go with that 1 win under the new managerial pairing they have, in their last 6 lost just once (3-1 away at Plymouth). Along the way in that last 6 they have picked up very creditable draws against Lincoln and Reading, but conversely have suffered a 0-0 against Port Vale and drew 3-3 in their last outing v Wycombe.
Much like ourselves the Terriers have no issues scoring, with them having the 4th best attack in the division, defensively though they come in a very poor, below average joint 14th, having conceded 56 times in their 42 matches.
Taking just their home form Huddersfield have the 6th best record, amassing 41 points in their 21 home games. They also have the 4th best home attack, notching 40 times but also conceding joint best 8th number of goals (22, joint with ourselves and 3 others). They do like a shot or 2 as they have the 7th highest overall shot count but also boast the joint 3rd shots to goal ratio (again, joint with ourselves and 2 others).
One area we may be able to take advantage of though is their discipline, as they have a pretty high overall foul count and also have the joint 4th highest red card count with 4 dismissals this season, with 3 of those being straight reds.
Overall I’d say we can expect a stern test, but then I also thought we’d get that on Saturday too and look how that turned out
!
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On The Pitch
Phew, how chuffed were we to see Dylan Lawlor passed fit on Saturday? The young man’s burgeoning reputation must have been further enhanced following another excellent showing, despite being battered from pillar to post.
Given the physical experience of Saturday and with Osho coming back from suspension I really wouldn’t be surprised to see him rested for this one.
With the possible exception of Tanner I really thought all the remainder of the starting 11 played very well and it was also a rare occasion where, albeit only for a relatively short period, I felt our substitutions weakened us and we looked a little disjointed for a while so for that reason I can’t see too many, if any other changes for this this one, with BBM no doubt wanting to get us across the finishing line as soon as he possibly can.
Predicted Starting 11
Trott
Bagan
Fish
Osho
Ng
Robertson
Wintle
R Colwill
Tanner
Kellyman
Willock
Just because I thought the team played so well - here's some bonus footage from Saturday!!
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The Odds
Understandable we are only slight favourites for this one, but favourites nonetheless. Win this one and as Ken said, it could be a case of they think it’s all over!
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As McFadden and Whitehead once said, “Ain’t no stopping us now”.
C’mon The City!!!!
